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Tennis player Simona Halep at a tournament in Dubai 2020

Photo: ALI HAIDER/EPA-EFE/REX

Simona Halep was suspended for a year and a half for a doping offense.

Now the former number one in the tennis world rankings is about to make a surprisingly early comeback: As the international sports court Cas announced, the suspension of the Wimbledon and French Open winner will be reduced from the original four years to nine months.

Halep can now compete in WTA tournaments again: Because the period of suspension by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (Itia) began on October 7, 2022, Halep has already served her ban.

Positive test, irregularities in the athlete's passport

The 32-year-old Romanian tested positive for the substance roxadustat, which is on the doping list, during the US Open 2022.

The kidney medication, similar to Epo, increases the number of red blood cells and thus has a performance-enhancing effect.

At Halep, the substance was detected in both the A and B samples, which resulted in an initial suspension.

The ban was initially particularly drastic because further allegations against Halep emerged in the spring of 2023.

There were “irregularities in her biological passport”.

The Biological Athlete Passport is used by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) as a long-term profile for athletes that contains biomarkers from doping controls.

When observed over a longer period of time, these parameters reveal abnormalities or deviations from normal values.

Doping offenses “not intentional”

The CAS found a violation of the anti-doping rules, but after "careful examination" followed Halep's statement that the banned substance "entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated dietary supplement (...)".

And further: "As a result, the Cas Panel concluded that, on the balance of probabilities, Ms. Halep was also able to demonstrate that her anti-doping rule violations were not intentional."

Itia announced last autumn that there had been a negotiation in London on June 28th and 29th last year, at which, among other things, scientific experts from both sides were heard.

The court ruled that Halep intentionally violated the anti-doping program.

Halep had always protested her innocence in both cases and explained the positive doping sample by saying that she had been a victim of contamination.

The court accepted this argument, but at the same time found that the amount the player allegedly took could not have led to the roxadustat concentration found in the doping sample, Itia said at the time.


cev/dpa