Tara Moore’s £15m Damages Claim Dismissed by US Court
Tara Moore’s £15m damages claim against the Women’s Tennis Association has been thrown out by a United States court, closing the latest chapter in a doping saga that has already ended her career at the top level.
The 34-year-old Briton, once the country’s leading women’s doubles player, had argued that the WTA failed in its duty of care by not warning competitors about the risk of contaminated meat at a 2022 tournament in Bogota, Colombia. She sought at least $20m in compensatory damages, alleging the organisation “stayed silent in the face of a known and specific danger and then shifted the blame for its own negligence” onto her.
On Friday, United States district judge Andrew Carter dismissed her motion in New York, ordered the case closed and ruled that her legal challenge was “not justified” on a legal basis.
For Moore, it is another brutal blow in a case she describes as a “nightmare”.
Her ordeal began in April 2022, when she tested positive for the anabolic agents nandrolone and boldenone at a WTA 250 event in Bogota. An independent tribunal later accepted that contaminated meat was the source of the substances and found she bore “no fault or negligence”. At that point, it looked like vindication.
The reprieve did not last.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and Cas sided with the ITIA last year. Moore was handed a four-year ban, backdated to 2022 and running until 2028 – a sanction that effectively wipes out the remaining prime of a player who had climbed to a career-high doubles ranking of 77 in the world in 2022.
Moore then tried to turn the fight back on the sport’s authorities. She initiated proceedings with the American Arbitration Association, claiming the WTA’s failure to warn players about Colombian meat was a direct cause of her positive test and the financial and reputational damage that followed.
The arbitrator rejected her case and backed the Cas ruling. Moore responded by taking the matter to the United States District Court, arguing she had been denied a fair hearing in arbitration and renewing her demand for multi-million-dollar damages.
That door has now slammed shut as well.
The decision leaves Moore banned until 2028, with no compensation and no legal victory to offset the stain of a doping case she has always insisted she did not cause. It also leaves a lingering question hanging over tennis: if a player can be found to have “no fault or negligence” and still end up banned for four years, what does that say about the system built to protect both the integrity of the sport and the athletes within it?
The WTA and ITIA have been approached for comment.
