A WIMBLEDON star has broken their silence after he was banned for missing doping tests.
American Jenson Brooksby, 22, reached the third round on his debut at the illustrious SW19 tennis tournament last year.
But he is playing no part in Wimbledon this summer after the ace revealed that he is accepting a provisional suspension.
Anti-doping rules call for a potential lengthy ban for any player that misses three tests in a year.
These are called “whereabouts” failures and stars are obliged to inform anti-doping chiefs of their whereabouts in order to allow access for testers.
Brooksby has now declared that he is denying all charges against him – which are yet to be announced – but is accepting the ban.
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He released a statement on Instagram which read: “The provisional suspension is not an admission that I have done anything wrong; to the contrary, I have denied this charge and am waiting for an arbitration with an independent tribunal.
“I have never failed a drug test and I have never taken any substances that I was not allowed to take.
“I have been tested numerous times including three times after surgery in March 2023.”
Brooksby then added that “one of the alleged missed tests” happened in June 2022 two days before the start of an ATP tournament in the Netherlands.
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He says that he “was at the official tournament hotel where I said I would be, and in my hotel room, and the time that I had said I would be there.”
Brooksby, who has earned around £1.6m in prize money so far in his fledgling career, added: “It’s frustrating.
“I’m looking forward to giving them all of the evidence.”
Brooksby, was just outside the world's top 30 ranked players last year but has since fallen to 101 amid wrist injuries, produced his best performance at a major in the 2021 US Open.
He then went up against Novak Djokovic, and he even took a set off of the legend, before he was eventually beaten 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
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