Banned tennis player Thomas Fancutt makes comeback after IV vitamin breach
Thomas Fancutt says he is enjoying his return to professional tennis. (ABC News: Lachie McLeod)
In short:
Australian Thomas Fancutt has made his return to professional tennis after receiving a 10-month ban for receiving a 500 millilitre vitamin and magnesium infusion.
Rules state that players are only permitted a dosage of up to 100 millilitres of fluid intravenously within a 12-hour period.
What's next?
Fancutt is playing local UTR Pro Tennis tournaments to verify his ranking, making him eligible for overseas tennis events.
Australian doubles player Thomas Fancutt felt like tennis turned its back on him just as his career was finally taking off.
Two hours after his first grand slam appearance at the 2025 Australian Open, Fancutt was intercepted by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).
He was questioned at length about suspected doping, and suddenly his career was on ice.
"I didn't really get to celebrate the fact that I was playing a slam," he said.
"I was kind of stunned by the agents from the ITIA basically informing me there was an investigation going on."
The 30-year-old was hit with a doping violation and banned for two years for exceeding the permitted intravenous (IV) infusion.
The watchdog intervened after Fancutt posted a video of himself on a 500 millilitre IV drip containing Vitamin B, Vitamin C and magnesium.
Thomas Fancutt says he would never have accepted the drip had he known it would put his tennis career on hold. (ABC Central West: Emily Middleton)
Fancutt said he took the infusion to deal with exhaustion.
"I played about 12 tournaments in 13 weeks to basically try to qualify for the Australian Open, I was suffering from really bad burnout and fatigue," he said.
World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) and Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) rules state that players are only permitted a dosage of up to 100 millilitres of fluid intravenously within a 12-hour period.
Fancutt appealed the two-year ban, which was reduced to 10 months after the ITIA accepted his explanation.
"The ITIA accepts that in all of the circumstances the Player's commission of the violation was not 'intentional'," the agency wrote in August last year.
IV infusions are limited to avoid athletes using them to enhance their performance or to mask other doping agents.
Athletes are responsible for complying with the doping rules.
The door shuts
At the time, Fancutt was ranked 107 in the world for doubles, but the ban meant he was unable to train at any facilities insured by Tennis Australia, and not even allowed to watch his friends play in tournaments.
"[I was] genuinely banished … it's been my life, I grew up at a tennis centre … it felt like I wasn't able to go home," he said.
"I had some dark days for sure, where I thought about quitting, the world was kind of against me and I'm getting destroyed for an honest mistake."
While some players offered sympathy, messaging him to say they did not realise vitamin infusions were restricted, many were quick to judge.
"I got messages from people saying I'm an embarrassment to my family and my country, the facts weren't even public yet and I was getting sprayed," he said.
"We're just people and people make honest mistakes, I genuinely had no clue about an IV rule and got zero benefit from it."
Thomas Fancutt is returning to professional tennis. (Supplied: Jac Lee Media)
Professional players can be tested at random times due to substances having short detection windows.
For a test to be successful, Sports Integrity Australia needs to be taking samples within a short window of when an athlete may have ingested or been injected with a banned substance.
It is not just the substances athletes take that can make them fall foul of WADA guidelines, but the methods.
Sport Integrity Australia's (SIA) head of anti-doping operations, Chris Butler, said infusions of more than 100 millilitres were prohibited because they could mask performance-enhancing drugs.
"It's important to understand the difference between a prohibited substance and a prohibited method, and an infusion can be both," he said.
"[IV infusions] might distort the values we are seeing through the blood, the biological passport of that athlete."
"That's why the amount matters because WADA have determined that [100 millilitres] isn't large enough to either enhance your performance or mask a substance or inhibit that blood profile."
Player's responsibility
A spokesperson from the ITIA told the ABC the responsibility lay with the athlete.
"The onus is on them to ensure whatever they put in their body is safe, does not contain a prohibited substance, or is not taken through a prohibited method," he said.
Mr Butler agreed.
"[We ask] has the athlete been negligent or not, and to what degree?" he said.
The ITIA tested more than 9,000 players in 2024.
Of those, just six players were sanctioned by the Tennis Anti-Doping Program, including men's and women's stars Jannik Sinner and Iga Świątek.
Sinner received a three-month ban after testing positive twice for an anabolic agent called Clostebol.
The banned substance was found in an over-the-counter spray, which he said a team member applied to treat a small wound.
Świątek received a one-month ban after testing positive for a banned substance called Trimetazidine, which she took for jet lag.
The comeback
Fancutt is still paying back his $25,000 fine and clawing his way back up the rankings.
He is also documenting his journey through social media, giving young fans an insight into what it takes to reach the top.
Thomas Fancutt says he is ready to be back in the game. (Supplied: Jac Lee Media)
Last month, Fancutt competed as a wildcard in the semi-professional Tweed Open, winning the tournament without dropping a game.
He then took the silverware at Brisbane's Churchie Open.
"Honestly, I'm so stoked to be back, I felt like a kid again being on court, I just missed competing,"he said.
"Having experienced both sides, kind of like a forced retirement and then being on the tour, the global tour wins hands down, I wouldn't trade it for anything."