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Simona Halep, a former number one tennis player in the world, says of her four-year ban from the sport, “There is no proof… it’s just insane.”
Halep, a two-time Grand Slam champion, was banned for four years last Tuesday by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for doping violations, including irregularities in her Athlete Biological Passport.
She has not played in a tournament since testing positive for roxadustat, an anti-anemia medication, at the US Open in October of 2022.
“I was confident after the hearing because there were so many things that made no sense and that are not fair,” Simona Halep told Front Office Sports following her suspension.
Halep, who won the 2018 French Open and the 2019 Wimbledon Championships, vowed last week on X (AKA Twitter) to “do everything” in her power to clear her name.
“When I received the decision, I was in complete shock,” Halep revealed to Front Office Sports. “I could not believe that they suspended me for four years when we found the contamination and my blood was totally normal. They didn’t find anything bad in my blood. It’s crazy that they made this decision with everything [her legal team presented]. They judged me on scenarios. There is no proof. It’s just insane.”
Halep’s attorney Howard Jacobs understands his client being suspended for a positive test, but feels the length of the ban is excessive.
“It’s a violation, but we said the sanction should be very minimal,” he said.
According to Halep, the banned substance was in a Keto MCT supplement, but was not listed as one of the ingredients.
Halep tested negative for roxadustat on August 26, 2022, but three days later she tested positive.
She claims that there is no advantage for her to take such a substance and, in fact, it would be to her detriment due to a thyroid condition that roxadust would only have excerbated.
“There was no point for me to take this,” Halep said. “It’d work against me. It wouldn’t help me.”
Jacobs, who represented Maria Sharapova and got her two-year ban reduced to 15 months in 2016, said, “We have the facts and the science on our side.”
Simona Halep, who spent 373 consecutive weeks, from January 2014 to August 2021, ranked in the top 10 in the world, will be 35 years-old when her suspension comes to an end in 2026.