French tennis player Alize Cornet has escaped a possible ban for missing three doping tests, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) confirmed today.
One of Cornet's lawyers, Alexis Gramblat, had earlier told AFP that an independent tribunal "found that on the third occasion, the tester had not made every reasonable effort to find her".
The information was confirmed by an ITF press release.
The ITF has 21 days to appeal. After that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and French Anti-Doping Agency have another 21 days to appeal if they so wish.
Gramblat said Cornet, 28, was "delighted" and will be able to play in the Strasbourg tournament next week and, above all, at the French Open, which starts on May 27.
He explained that when the tester rang the bell at Cornet's block of flats in Cannes on October 24, "Alize could hear nothing because her intercom was broken".
Gramblat said the tester waited and when other residents emerged she could have found out which was Cornet's door, gone in and knocked on it and that not doing so represented a failure to "make every reasonable effort to contact the player".
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