Tennis champion Simona Halep, who previously won Wimbledon and the French Open, faces a four-year ban for anti-doping.
Announced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), the 31-year-old Romanian ace has been sanctioned for two different doping violations. Halep is already under a provisional suspension from October 2022 after testing positive for the banned blood booster Roxadustat during the US Open.
Halep’s biological athlete passport indicated further discrepancies, prompting an independent tribunal to uphold both charges. This body claimed that Halep had deliberately broken anti-doping regulations.
Despite these accusations, Halep remains firm in her stance. She announced her intention to challenge the ban, which runs until October 2026. In her statement, Halep shared her commitment to validate her innocence in the face of these “false allegations” and expressed her eager to return to court. He also plans to challenge the ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and is keen to take legal action against the supplement company involved.
Halep has consistently denied any intentional consumption of the illicit substance. He speculates that small amounts of the anemia drug made it into his body due to contamination from a sanctioned supplement. Following the advice of his physical therapist, he had modified his nutritional supplements the previous year. Although none of these supplements listed prohibited items, he acknowledges that one may have been contaminated with Roxadustat.
The ITIA, while acknowledging Halep’s claim of contamination, believes that the volume ingested could not account for the levels detected. The additional charge against Halep relates to anomalies in her biological passport, which the ITIA attributes to “probable doping”.
This article is sourced from and written by AI.
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