Halep Gets 4-Year Suspension for Doping Violation

The independent panel that supervises the anti -doping rules for tennis has issued a four -year suspension to Simona Halep of Romania, a ruling that could end the world’s career race and twice Grand Slam champion.

Halep, 31, was accused of two separate infractions of the anti -doping rules of sport, after a failed drug test in the US Open in 2022. Halep gave positive by Roxadustat, a medication commonly used for people at the level of blood cells or red blood cells.

Roxadustat is on the list of prohibited substances because hemoglobin production and red blood cells are stimulated, which is a technique for players to win more resistance. The medicine does this by making the body more of erythropoietin hormone, commonly known as “EPO”, which plays an important role in the production of red blood cells.

Red blood cells carry oxygen through the body. More red blood cells can be the result of greater resistance, which made EPO a private substance of professional cycling for years.

In addition, Halep was also accused of having irregularities in his blood compared to the samples to which the agency had access as part of its so -called biological passport, which provides doping officials of the baseline. The Tres Personal Court heard the case between the International Tennis Integrity Agency and Halep discovered that these irregularities suggested the use of forbidden substances that last the season.

Halep, who had never failed in a drug test, had argued and provided evidence to support its content that Roxadustat had been present in a polluted supplement that had tasks ahead of the US Open, but that had not figured in the list. The court accepted that argument, but after listening to the testimony of experts, he concluded that the contamination of the supplement could not account for the amount of Roxadustat found in his urine.

Karen Moorhouse, executive director of the ITIA, said that the agency welcomed the decision after a one -year process that had received significant criticism from so much Halep, coaches with whom she has worked with and other players. Moorhouse said that around 8,000 pages of evidence were considered.

“The ITIA has followed the clean processes as we would with any other individual according to the world anti -doping code that fills our purpose and responsibility to maintain the principle of fair competition, in what sport,” he said.

In a statement issued through its communications team, Halep said he never had to know or obtain an intentionally prohibited substance and that would appeal the ruling before the Arbitration Court for Sports, which functions as a superior court for sports disputes. She said that the evidence she had presented to the court was convincing.

“While I am grateful to finally have a result after numerous unfounded delays and a feeling of living in purgatory for a year, I am surprised and disappointed by his decision,” said Halep.

The suspension is the highest profile decision in sports since Maria Sharapova, five times Grand Slam champion and one of the best paid athletes in the world, received a two -year suspension in 2016 for a doping rape.

Sharapova tested positive for a heart medication that is said to improve blood flow and allows athletes to recover faster, in January 2016, shortly after a list of prohibited substances was added.

Sharapova quickly admitted that he had 10 years of tasks of a heart drug whose active ingredient is Meldonium to handle what he said they were a variety of health problems. I didn’t know that the drug had been prohibited, he said. Sharapova was 29 years old when she was suspended, and although she returned to tennis, she retired in 2020 when she was 32 years old.

If the Sports Arbitration Court maintains the suspension, Haalep will be prohibited from competing in tennis until October 2026 because it has suspended the evidence for almost a year.