British tennis player Tara Moore has filed a lawsuit against the WTA seeking $20 million in damages, claiming the organization negligently failed to warn players about contaminated meat in Colombia that led to her positive doping test. The 33-year-old was banned for four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July 2025 after testing positive for boldenone and nandrolone in 2022. Her attorney alleges a flawed anti-doping system presumed her guilt without evidence.
Tara Moore, a British professional tennis player aged 33, tested positive for the banned substances boldenone and nandrolone during a WTA Tour event in Bogota, Colombia, in April 2022. She received a provisional suspension from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) in May 2022. An independent tribunal cleared her of wrongdoing in December 2023, accepting her explanation that the substances came from consuming locally contaminated meat used in cattle farming.
However, the ITIA appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In July 2025, CAS imposed a four-year ban on Moore, ruling that she had not adequately explained the presence of nandrolone in her sample. Two other players tested positive for similar substances at the same event, but Moore faced immediate suspension under strict anti-doping rules.
Moore has now sued the WTA in the Southern District of New York federal court, demanding at least $20 million in compensation for career and reputational damage. Her attorney, Daniel Weiss, stated in court filings that the WTA possessed knowledge of the contaminated meat risk in Bogota—citing an earlier case where Colombian player Robert Farah was cleared after a similar positive test—but failed to warn players. Weiss described Moore as "a victim twice over: first of the WTA’s negligence, and then of a fundamentally flawed anti-doping system that presumed she was guilty without any evidence of wrongdoing."
The lawsuit argues that the WTA remained silent on the known danger and shifted blame to the player. Moore, whose career earnings total $657,178 with best rankings of No. 145 in singles and No. 77 in doubles, recalled the emotional toll: "I remember just having this out-of-body experience, being like, ‘What do you mean I failed the doping test?’ Suddenly, I was just blacklisted from everything."
The WTA responded: "The arbitration was conducted by a neutral arbitrator, and there is no basis to vacate the arbitrator’s award. We respect the judicial process and will not comment further while the matter is pending." The ITIA and CAS declined to comment.
This case highlights growing concerns over contaminated meat in tennis. On February 18, 2026, the ITIA cleared three South American players—Peru’s Conner Huertas del Pino, Brazil’s Mateo Barreiros Reyes, and Colombia’s Andrés Urrea—after they tested positive for boldenone from contaminated meat. Recently, the ATP Mexican Open removed meat from player meals to minimize such risks, a measure not in place during Moore's incident.
