Simona Halep recently revealed that she has stopped working with Patrick Muratoglu, and now the former WTA leader is blaming the French coach’s team for the entire doping scandal that brought her a 4-year ban.

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Simona Halep blames Patrik Muratoglu’s team: “Due to their mistake, a 25-year career is ruined”

In an interview with the French on Paris Match, the two-time Grand Slam winner says she is the only one paying, even though Muratoglu’s team is solely to blame for giving her a tainted bonus.

“My team recommended that I take collagen supplements. I followed the recommendation and it later turned out that the supplement was contaminated.

A professional athlete is surrounded by people who should take care of him and his health. I always trusted the people I worked with completely. It is not the athlete who should check what is in the supplement.

I’m sure what happened was unintentional and I’m grateful that he admitted his mistake, which is also the team’s mistake. They are the ones who gave me this supplement. And because of that mistake, their mistake, I’m the only person paying the price. 25-year career destroyed!

Now we no longer work together. I didn’t talk for a few months. And I also haven’t trained at the Muratoglu Academy since last year.

I am a victim of injustice. I know I didn’t do anything wrong and I have no reason to be angry with myself. Seeing things like this helps me get rid of insomnia. Because I had periods when I couldn’t sleep. I had panic attacks.

I was also overwhelmed with emotions when I played in tournaments. I felt empty in my stomach. But ever since I got this suspension, I live every day with pain and anxiety. Even if the situation is a little better today.

If the sanction is maintained, I do not know what will happen in the next three years. I dream of returning, regardless of age. One thing is for sure: I want to decide how to finish my career, and I don’t want it to happen anywhere but on the pitch.“- Simona Halepfor Paris Match, quoted by Adevărul.

Simona Halep will be present at the 2024 Olympics: “In the worst case, as a spectator”

The 2024 Olympics will be held in Paris, the city where Halep won Roland Garros as a junior (2008) and as a senior (2018), and the athlete was asked if she would be present in the French capital.

Regardless of the verdict of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in her doping case, the former WTA leader said she will not miss this event.

“Of course! There is a small chance that I will be able to participate, so I believe in it and I will do everything for it. At 32 years old, it is also what keeps me going. But I do not have all the books.

Anyway, whatever happens, I’ll be there. At worst, as a spectator, because it will be enchanting. I love Paris, it is a city where, apart from my sporting success, I feel good. I always liked to walk there. I love the architecture, the people and the energy that this city radiates” – Simona Halep.

>> Wimbledon semi-finalist Simona Halep received a big rebuke in the doping scandal

What you need to know about Simona Halep’s doping case

• The news that Simona Halep was temporarily suspended for doping appeared on Friday, October 21, 2022.

• Simona’s case was heard by Sport Resolutions, an independent tribunal in London that hears doping cases in white sport.

• Halep was suspended for 4 years for two separate violations of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP): the presence and use of the substance roxadustat in a urine sample collected after an anti-doping test conducted at the 2022 US Open (1) and a violation of her biological passport (2).

• Simone has only one appeal: the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

• According to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on its official website, Halep will be heard by CAS on February 7-9, 2024.

• The Swiss court said that the ex-leader of the WTA asked to cancel the decision of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) and “reduce” its sanctions.

• If the 4-year disqualification remains in force, then the ex-WTA leader can theoretically return to the tennis court on October 6, 2026. Halep will be 35 years old at that time.

• On August 29, 2022, Simona Halep played her last official match on the world circuit. At the US Open, in the inaugural round, our athlete unexpectedly defeated Daria Snigur (at that time, 124th place in the WTA, based on the qualification).

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