In the first two days (Wednesday and Thursday), Simona Halep spent 19 hours at the CAS hearings, and on Friday she will appear before the court in Lausanne for the last time. The ex-leader of the WTA hopes to soften the four-year disqualification with the use of doping. Highlights of Friday, February 9, LiveBlog on HotNews.ro.

Simona Halep, listening on TAS – The most important moments of Friday, February 9

10:05 amAs a reminder, the hearing should end on Friday around 16:30 (Romanian time). Whether this announced TAS program will be followed or not remains to be seen.

09:59Simona Halep may have to wait a few months for a verdict from CAS. The last case of such a scale was the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva the result came after four months.

09:57After the hearings, the TAS panel will discuss and prepare an arbitral award, which will contain the award and the reasons for it. The date when the final arbitration award will be issued is unknown.

09:39Karolina Pliskova, ex-WTA leader and one of Simona Halep’s rivals, addressed the athlete from Romania, who is currently at the TAS headquarters in Lausanne.

“I saw today that he presented himself at TAS. I’ve always liked Simone, she was one of the girls on the track that I was closest to, we’ve known each other since we were 10 years old.

We met many times and Simo always played fair, whether he won or lost.

I hope the term of the four-year disqualification will be shortened” – Karolina Plishkovaat the press conference after the 1/8 final match of Transylvania Open 2024 from Cluj.

09:31At the end of Thursday’s hearing, Simone summed it up to tell the media only this: “I can’t talk. We’ll talk at the end.” On the second day of the hearing, Halep spent nine hours at the headquarters in Lausanne.

09:30Simona Halep was heard for the first time on Wednesday. The ex-WTA leader spent almost ten hours at the TAS headquarters.

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).