​Patrick Muratoglu took responsibility for Simona Halep’s doping scandal, and the former coach of the two-time Grand Slam winner reacted after the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the Romanian’s suspension (from 4 years to 9 months).

The term of Simona Halep’s disqualification was reduced to only 9 months, TAS reports – the ex-WTA leader can return to the court

Patrick Muratoglu after the TAS decision in the case of Simona Halep: “The truth won / The injustice is unbelievable”

The French coach wrote that “the truth won” in a post in which Simona talked about the achieved “bittersweet triumph”.

In addition, Muratoglu shared on X a post by Ahmad Nassar, executive director of the Professional Tennis Association (PTPA), who said that Halep cannot make up for lost time.

“First of all, we are glad that Simona has finally rehabilitated her name. But let’s not call it a “victory”. Nobody really won here. She has not returned the last year and a half. Rating points and cash prizes are not returned to him.

And to top it all off, TAS decided that Simone’s suspension ended last July… anyone got a time machine? This has to change. And we will work for change,” he wrote Ahmad Nassar, head of Novak Djokovic’s association.

“The injustice is incredible. Yes, that has to change.” Muratoglu commented.

In early November 2023, Patrick Muratoglu posted a video explaining that he felt guilty after Simona Halep tested positive for a contaminated supplement recommended by the Frenchman’s team.

“I am confident about the future of Simona Halep after the appeal filed with the CAS, because it is an independent court. We were able to determine where the pollution was coming from. Therefore, we suggested that he take collagen and bought it from the company.

This collagen turned out to be contaminated. I couldn’t have known, but I take responsibility for what happened as it affects my team and me. We bought him this collagen.

We have run all possible tests to determine if it is an infection. I am very confident that an independent court will recognize that Simona never used doping, that she is a victim and should return to the field and play as soon as possible.

My eyes were opened and I realized that any athlete could get infected tomorrow, because apparently it is happening more and more often. Additives should be clean, but it happens that they are contaminated.

We are talking about extremely small amounts. They do not work, but it happens that you have them in your body and you are positive in an anti-doping test. This is terrible, because you are completely innocent, your reputation is ruined!

Your name was involved in a doping scandal, and you can sit on the bar for a long time. It affects your reputation for no reason because you did nothing. I realized that this can happen to anyone, and you need to be 100% sure that it will not happen to the supplement manufacturers you choose.” – wrote Patrick Muratogluat that time, on Instagram.

Check out this Instagram post

A message shared by COACH (@patrickmouratoglou)

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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).

• Halep was heard at the 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.

• 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).