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When Varvara Lepchenko tested positive for Meldonium shortly after the notorious Maria Sharapova case back in 2016, no one heard about it.

It was never announced.

Why? Lepchenko was provisionally banned on March 12, 2016. The notice was issued in April, 2016. But it was only in September, 2016, when the ITF released its decision that Lepchenko bore “no fault or negligence”, that anything was ever made official.

Lepchenko, like Sinner, forfeited only the prize money and ranking points she earned in Brisbane, which was where she tested positive.

Why? Because Lepchenko’s application to the independant tribunal to have the provisional suspension lifted was … successful.

It is believed to be perhaps the only other case in eons to have had a successful outcome on the provisional suspension appeal – until Jannik Sinner. At the time, the ITIA didn’t exist; it was the ITF’s bailiwick, through the TIU (Tennis Integrity Unit).

As WADA appeals the Jannik Sinner case, there are QUESTIONS

We’ll have to search social media to see if any of the current conspiracy theorists weighed on at that time about “secrecy and coverups” about a former top-20 player.

It did leak out; Lepchenko was asked about it in press at that year’s Roland Garros after a Russian trainer claimed in an interview that Lepchenko’s father had told him about the positive meldonium test. Lepchenko didn’t play for a few months in the spring because of a knee injury, which led to all sorts of conspiracy theories about “silent bans” and “amnesties” from Glebov. He seemed to have the positive test right, but the rest of it wrong. And then, four months later, the decision was announced.

There was enough doubt, if you remember back then, about how long the meldonium stayed in the athlete’s system that the “51 per cent” threshold of probability was probably a little easier to reach at the time. And later, the ITF adjusted its time parameters in terms of that threshold.

A second positive test

In July, 2021 Lepchenko tested positive for different banned substance. She requested a hearing before the independant tribunal. But there’s no indication she had requested an expedited hearing of the provisional suspension – likely because, unlike the Meldonium situation, she couldn’t immediately source the origin of the banned substance. And so, the provisional suspension went ahead, and that positive test and suspension were announced publicly.

By March, 2022, Lepchenko was given a four-year ban, because she couldn’t prove lack of intention to the satisfaction of the independant tribunal.

Nearly a year later, it was announced that she had come to a settlement with the ITF the previous October to reduce the ban to 21 months – a settlement appoved by the CAS in Feb. 2023 and also signed off on by WADA.

She had appealed the case to the CAS on the basis of finding – after the hearing was concluded – a bottle of capsules of Bemetil purchased in Ukraine in Oct. 2020. It was located in the lining of a travel bag that had been stored away. The ITF contacted the manufacturer, purchased a bottle of the product manufactured at the same time, and sent it for testing. The testing confirmed the capsules contained traces of the substance she’d tested positive for, an ingredient not listed on the label.

With that, Lepchenko had established that “on balance of probabilities” the banned substance had come from the contaminated product. And as a result – and per their protocols – they agreed to reduce her suspension.

So the takeaway for the Sinner case is that the same player had two different experiences. And in both cases, it seemed the proper protocols were followed – one in her favour, the other not in her favour.

The epilogue

Lepchenko, now 38, returned to action in May 2023, at a $15K ITF in Málaga, Spain. She was unranked, having been out since early August, 2021.

By July 2023, she was at No. 1104. By the end of the season, 21 tournaments later (!!), she was inside the top 300.

She qualified for the main draw at the US Open in August of this year and reached the second round, which got her inside the top 170. It was her first main draw at a major since Roland Garros in 2021, and only her third since the 2019 US Open.

On Tuesday, after winning a qualifying match at the WTA 125 in Hong Kong, Lepchenko defeated Linda Fruhvirtova in three sets to advance to the second round of the main draw.

Her career high of No. 19 is 12 years – and a lot of drama – behind her.

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