The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Tuesday, September 12, the four-year suspension of Simona Halep, former world number one and two-time grand slam winner, due to two violations of anti-doping regulations. The 31-year-old Romanian had already been provisionally suspended in October 2022. Her four-year suspension runs until October 6, 2026, specifies the ITIA. The player can appeal the decision.
The first offense upheld by the independent tribunal concerns the presence of roxadustat, a molecule that stimulates the production of red blood cells classified as an EPO in the regulations of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), in a doping control conducted 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 killing not only 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 explained that she was “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 [she is] guilty of something that [she] never did.”
She has not played competitively since her elimination in the first round of the 2022 US Open, a little 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. She 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.
Simona Halep announced her intention to appeal: “I intend to appeal this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. I continue to train and do everything in my power to clear my name of these false accusations and return to the court. »