Simona Halep traveled to Lausanne on Tuesday to meet the former WTA leader following a hearing at the TAS (Tribunal of Arbitration for Sport). They will take place on February 7-9, and Halep hopes to soften the 4-year ban she received for doping.

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On Tuesday morning, Simona Halep took off on a WizzAir flight to Lausanne, where the ex-WTA leader will be heard by TAS.

Halep is accompanied by her brother, as well as lawyer Bohdan Stoyka, reports Euronews.ro. In addition, journalist Andrei Nurescu also published photos of Simona on board the plane that is taking her to Switzerland.

Simona Halep will be represented at CAS by a team of lawyers led by Howard L. Jacobs

According to the quoted source, Simona will be represented at CAS by a team of lawyers led by Howard L. Jacobs (he has also dealt with athletes who have problems with doping, we mention here the cases of Maria Sharapova and Marin Cilic – both received reduced suspensions).

In addition to Bohdan Stoyka and Howard L. Jacobs, Simona will also be in Lausanne with former American figure skater Jeffrey G. Benz, who is even an arbitrator in TAS, according to Euronews.

Answering questions about Simona’s appeal to TAS, Elisabeth Lipe (president of ANS – National Sports Agency) cautiously assesses Halep’s chances of success at the hearings in Lausanne.

“An athlete should always know what supplements he is taking. I firmly believe that Simona, since she went to the best tennis academy, she went with an open heart, she went to perform, she put herself in the hands of specialists, and this is what happened.

I had that moment in 2000 with Andreja Redukan, with that damn strong Nurofen that knocked her off the track, and that Nurofen practically stole the medal from her neck.

I know what a tragedy it was in the Romanian national team, in the Olympic village, to know that you had a cold and took a banal Nurofen, and it took the medal off your neck.

And despite all the insistence and all the lawsuits, there were only so many meetings and Mr. Cyriac failed to make them understand that it was still Nurofen, which in no way promotes performance” – Elizaveta Lipafor Gsp.ro.

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.

• A Swiss court said the former WTA leader had asked to overturn 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 would have turned 35 at that time.

• On August 29, 2022, Simona Halep played her last official match on the world stage. 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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