The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has insisted it gave Alizé Cornet the opportunity to present reasons for three missed doping tests, after the French player said that they were due to ‘valuable reasons that the ITF didn’t want to hear’. The ITF today confirmed Cornet was charged on 11 January with failing to be present at the location specified in her ‘whereabouts’ filings for an anti-doping test three times in a 12-month period.

Under WADA’s Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS), athletes selected to be part of a Registered Testing Pool (RTP) are required to file their location for one hour each day three months in advance (although this can later be amended). If there are three instances where Doping Control Officer (DCO) cannot locate them at their stated location – or if they fail to correctly file whereabouts data – three times in one year, they face a two-year ban.

‘The TADP points out that, contrary to the implication in Ms. Cornet’s statement that the ‘valuable reasons’ for her unavailability for testing at her declared whereabouts went unheard, the process set out in the International Standard for Testing and Investigations for the management of Whereabouts Failures, which includes the right for the player to request an independent assessment of whether the requirements for such failures were met, was followed in all three instances’, read an ITF statement. It is understood from Cornet’s statement (below) that her case will be heard in March.

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— Alize Cornet (@alizecornet) January 24, 2018