Portuguese tennis player Frederico Ferreira Silva, currently ranked 234th in the world, has completed a one-month ban imposed for an anti-doping rule violation.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) confirmed that the 30-year-old athlete tested positive for trimetazidine during a tournament in February 2025. The ITIA determined that the violation was unintentional, caused by the contamination of a prescribed medication, Daflon. As the drug had been approved by a sports medicine specialist and acquired by the Portuguese Tennis Federation after consultation, Silva`s degree of fault was deemed extremely low.
However, the principle of no fault or negligence was not applied. This decision was made because the French Agency for the Safety of Health Products (ANSM) had previously issued a recall notice regarding the known contamination of Daflon with trimetazidine. It was also noted that similar cases of contamination are not uncommon in the realm of sports.
Consequently, Ferreira Silva accepted the one-month suspension, which officially began on September 15th. It is important to mention that he had already been inactive for a longer period, from early March to mid-June, during the course of the investigation. Therefore, he is now free to return to tournament play without further restrictions.
It is worth recalling that last year, Iga Świątek received a similar one-month suspension due to trimetazidine contamination, highlighting the recurring nature of such incidents in professional sports.
Jasper Carew 
Marcus Prine