Promising WTA tour player suspended for doping

16-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva, who has charmed tennis fans with her feisty play and artless conversation, won't be charming them for at least two years. Karatantcheva has been given a two-year suspension for doping, the longest suspension ever given to a female tennis player. In addition, Karatantcheva will lose all of her ranking points, and forfeit the almost $129,000 she won from the 2005 French Open on, the period when she tested positive twice for the steroid, nandrolone.

Karatantcheva claimed her nandrolone level was high because she was unknowingly pregnant. She also claimed she had not testified before the Anti-Doping Commission.

The young Bulgarian is best known for upsetting Venus Williams in the Round of 16 of the 2005 French Open. That victory made her the youngest female--15 at the time--to ever reach the quarterfinals of the French Open.