Former British Doubles No. 1 Tara Moore is suing the WTA for $20 millionclaiming that her four-year doping ban was a result of the association failing to warn players of the risk of consuming contaminated meat during the tournament in BogotaColombia.
In June 2022, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced that Moore’s A sample, taken during the April 2022 Copa Colsanitas, where she reached the doubles final, contained nandrolone metabolites as well as boldenone and its metabolites, all of which were banned substances.
Moore was provisionally suspended in May 2022, effectively sidelining her from professional tennis while her case was investigated. She consistently denied that there was any intentional misconduct. In December 2023, an independent tribunal accepted that the positive test was consistent with the ingestion of contaminated meat at the WTA 250 event in Colombiaruled that Moore was not at fault or negligent and lifted her suspension. The decision cleared her to return to competition, ending nearly 19 months away from the tour.
However, the case took a dramatic turn when the ITIA appealed the ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In July 2025, the CAS panel overturned the previous decisionsiding with the ITIA argument that Moore had failed to prove that the concentration of nandrolone in her sample was consistent with ingestion through contaminated meat, effectively sidelining her for much of the 2027 season.
Speak with The first serve Last year, Moore described feeling abandoned at the start of the trial: I thought the WTA would contact me to help figure out who to speak to? Do I need a lawyer? How am I going to figure this out? I was very naive in thinking that they were very much on my sidewhen it very quickly became clear how contradictory and how far from the truth that was.”
In July 2025, Moore issued a statement expressing the emotional toll of the ordeal.
“To be innocent and have to prove that is an incredibly difficult process,” she wrote. “You are suspected of guilt and have to fight for your life against someone who has more money and resources than you.”
In the same statement says Moore said the three-and-a-half year battle had broken her to pieces and described the anti-doping system as fundamentally flawed.. While she acknowledged the damage to her own career, she said she was determined to keep fighting to protect future players from similar circumstances.
The latest development has Moore taking her fight to court. She has filed a $20 million negligence lawsuit against the WTA in the Southern District of New Yorkwhereby the administrative body is accused of failing in its duty of care and causing irreparable damage to its career.
A summary of the case reads”The action, brought by King & Spalding and Reeves & Weiss, alleges that the WTA failed to warn athletes of the risks of contaminated meat in Bogota, Colombia, leading to the player’s positive steroid test in April 2022, despite issuing similar warnings for other venues. The lawsuit, which seeks $20 million in damages, alleges that an initial tribunal’s waiver was improperly reversed by a CAS panel that applied incorrect legal standards.” (via: Outdoor tennis, New York Times)
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