Britain’s former top-ranked doubles player, Tara Moore, has been handed a four-year suspension after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld an appeal by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), overturning her earlier clearance in a doping case.

Moore, 32, was provisionally suspended in June 2022 after testing positive for the banned anabolic steroids nandrolone and boldenone. She consistently denied intentional wrongdoing and initially convinced an independent tribunal that the substances had entered her system via contaminated meat consumed prior to testing.

However, CAS ruled on Tuesday that Moore had not provided sufficient evidence to link the nandrolone levels in her sample to contaminated food. In a statement, CAS said:
“After reviewing the scientific and legal evidence, the majority of the CAS Panel considered that the player did not succeed in proving that the concentration of nandrolone in her sample was consistent with the ingestion of contaminated meat.”

The panel concluded that Moore failed to establish that the Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV) was unintentional. As a result, the ITIA’s appeal was upheld, and the previous decision by the independent tribunal was set aside.

The ruling brings an end to a 19-month ordeal for Moore, who had previously spoken about watching her “reputation, ranking, and livelihood slowly trickle away” during the provisional suspension. She had filed a cross-appeal to either dismiss the ITIA’s case or confirm her claim of “no fault or negligence,” but CAS declared it inadmissible.

Moore’s four-year ban is effective from 15 July 2025 but will be reduced by the time already served under provisional suspension.

ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse commented: “Our bar for appealing a first instance decision is high, and the decision is not taken lightly. In this case, our independent scientific advice was that the player did not adequately explain the high level of nandrolone present in their sample. Today’s ruling is consistent with that position.”

Moore has not yet publicly responded to the ruling.

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