Romanian Simona Halep, former world No.1 and double Grand Slam winner, has been suspended for four years for two violations of anti-doping regulations, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Tuesday. Halep (31 years old) had already been provisionally suspended since October 2022. Her four years of suspension thus run until October 6, 2026, specifies the ITIA. The Romanian player can appeal the decision.
Simona Halep announces she wants to appeal her doping suspension
Romanian Simona Halep, former world No.1 and double Grand Slam winner, announced her intention to appeal her four-year suspension for doping before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Tuesday on social networks.
“I intend to appeal this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” wrote Halep after the announcement of his sanction for two violations of anti-doping regulations. “I continue to train and do everything in my power to clear my name of these false accusations and return to the court,” says the 31-year-old Romanian, who has already been provisionally suspended for almost a year.
“Living the worst nightmare”
The first offense found by the independent court concerns the presence of roxadustat, a molecule which stimulates the production of red blood cells, classified among EPOs in the regulations of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), in an anti-doping control carried out at the US Open 2022; the second relates to irregularities in Halep’s biological passport, explains the independent body responsible for anti-doping in tennis. “They are not only killing my reputation, but also my career,” Halep reacted in May, shortly after the ITIA announced the second case against her, given the length of the procedure.
The winner of Roland-Garros in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019 had explained “living the worst nightmare” of her existence and denounced a form of “harassment” on the part of the ITIA which she accused of seeking to “prove that I am guilty of something I never did.” Halep has not played competitively since her elimination in the first round of the 2022 US Open just over a year ago. She then ended her season in mid-September, after a nose operation, to resolve a respiratory problem in particular, before being temporarily suspended.
Halep is the first leading player caught in the anti-doping net since the resounding suspension of Maria Sharapova in 2016. Testing positive for meldonium, the Russian star ultimately received a fifteen-month suspension.