ROME: Juventus and France midfielder Paul Pogba has been provisionally suspended after a doping control detected the banned substance testosterone, Italian anti-doping authorities (NADO) told AFP on Monday.
“The National Antidoping Tribunal informs that, in acceptance of the instance proposed by the National Antidoping Prosecutor, it has provided for the provisional suspension of the athlete Paul Labile Pogba,” NADO said in a statement to AFP.
NADO said the “prohibited substance detected: Non-endogenous testosterone metabolites,” was consistent with a doping infringement.
The Italian press reported that the doping test was carried out on the opening day of the Italian Serie A season, a 3-0 win at Udinese on August 20, during which the 30-year-old was an unused substitute.
The test concerns the ‘A’ sample, and if the ‘B’ sample also tests positive for testosterone Pogba could face a four-year ban.
NADO sent a statement Monday to clarify reports from earlier in the day in the Italian press regarding Pogba, who was hoping to play for Juventus against Lazio this weekend.
Pogba was a star player in France’s 2018 World Cup triumph but had an awful 2022-2023 season blighted by injury and a blackmail affair.
He played just ten games for Juventus that season and missed the 2022 World Cup with France.
Juventus midfielder Pogba provisionally suspended for doping
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Juventus midfielder Pogba provisionally suspended for doping
- Doping test was carried out on the opening day of the Italian Serie A season, a 3-0 win at Udinese on August 20, during which the 30-year-old was an unused substitute
- Pogba was a star player in France’s 2018 World Cup triumph but had an awful 2022-2023 season blighted by injury and a blackmail affair
Siniakova ends Andreeva Indian Wells defense in third round
- Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals
INDIAN WELLS, United States: Unseeded Katerina Siniakova ended a frustrated Mirra Andreeva’s Indian Wells title defense on Monday, rallying for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over the eighth-ranked Russian.
The 18-year-old Andreeva had opened her repeat bid with an imperious 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Solana Sierra.
But she was in trouble early and often against 44th-ranked Siniakova in a rollercoaster contest that featured seven service breaks for each player and 43 break chances between them.
When she sailed a swinging volley long to surrender the second set, Andreeva threw her racquet in disgust.
She regrouped to break Siniakova for a 3-2 lead in the third, but Siniakova won the next four games.
The Czech saved a pair of break points in the final game before sealing the match with a shot that struck the net cord and dribbled over as Andreeva could only watch, disappointment sparking another outburst from the Russian as she departed the court.
Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals.
In other early matches, fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula shook off a slow start to beat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Pegula, coming off her fourth career WTA 1000 title at Dubai last month, fired 11 aces with just one double fault as she rallied for the win.
“I think today I had to kind of snap myself back and kind of lock in to not let that get away from me,” said Pegula, who said she was in danger of letting negativity and frustration get the better of her.
“I didn’t think I was playing bad. It was just letting a couple chances, couple breaks here and there (get away), maybe a couple shots that I could have been more aggressive on.”
Later on Stadium Court, world number two Iga Swiatek took on Greece’s Maria Sakkari — the woman she beat in the Indian Wells finals in 2022 and 2024.
Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who lifted the Indian wells Trophy in 2023, played Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final match of the night.
