Tennis player accused of ‘doping’ after eating steroid-contaminated beef blames WTA for ruining her career

A pro tennis player who was placed on a four-year ban over “doping” accusations after eating steroid-contaminated meat at a tournament blames the Women’s Tennis Association for ruining her career. Tara Moore was accused of wrong doing after testing positive in April 2022 for steroids while playing on a WTA Tour that included a stop in Bogota, Colombia. But association officials failed to warn players not to eat local meat, which they allegedly knew to be contaminated with steroids used during cattle farming in the country, Moore said in a Manhattan Federal Court papers. Even though two other players tested positive in Bogota on the same tour at the same time, Moore, 33, was hit with an immediate ban under the rigid anti-doping framework upheld by the Court Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The former British number one doubles player was ultimately cleared of wrongdoing by an independent tribunal in December 2023, according to her court papers. But she was far from out of the woods – the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) appealed the decision, arguing Moore had not sufficiently proven where the performance-enhancing drugs in her system came from. Moore, who holds nine singles titles and 18 doubles titles in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) circuit, was ultimately barred in July 2025 from competing. “I remember just having this out of body experience, being like, ‘What do you mean I failed the doping test?’” Moore a Brit who lives in Indiana, said on a March 2025 episode of The Scuttlebutt Club podcast. “I remember feeling like something just had collapsed…Suddenly, I was just blacklisted from everything.” Moore appealed and went to arbitration seeking the hefty payout — but now she claims the arbitrator tossed her case because they simply adopted CAS’ legal framework, which assumes a player’s guilt. “Tara Moore is 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 athlete’s attorney Daniel Weiss told The Post. The association “possessed concrete, actionable knowledge of a specific and well-documented danger of contaminated meat” in the region, but stayed silent, Moore charged in her legal filing. Just months before the prohibited substances were discovered in Moore’s system, a top men’s player, Robert Farah, also tested positive in Bogota but was cleared because the governing body responsible for anti-doping acknowledged that the meat was contaminated, she alleged. But the WTA Tour’s official fact sheet did not include a warning for players not to consume local meat, like the non-profit organization had previously done, Moore claimed. Now, Moore wants to hold the WTA accountable for “the negligence that ruined her career,” her attorney said. She has demanded $20 million in damages, according to the recent court filing. “All this petition asks is for a federal court to ensure Tara gets what she was always promised: a fair hearing based on evidence, not a presumption of guilt,” he stated. The ITIA and CAS declined to comment on the filing. The WTA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.