Simona Halep learned of her punishment in the doping scandal after she was heard by the Sport Resolutions tribunal at the end of June. The Romanian received a 4-year ban after testing positive for Roxadustat at the 2022 US Open.

Simona Halep announces that she will consider all suspension appeals

“Today, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) tribunal announced a preliminary decision in my case. Last year was the hardest match of my life and unfortunately my struggle continues. I have dedicated my life to tennis.

I take the rules that govern our sport very seriously and I am proud that I have never knowingly or intentionally taken banned substances. I refused to accept the suspension decision for four years and appealed it according to the provisions of the law.

In a 126-page judgment, the tribunal upheld both charges brought by ITIA – positive urine test for a banned substance and violation of the Biological Passport Program (BPP). My representatives and I provided ITIA and the tribunal with compelling evidence in support of my defense and raised several legitimate questions about the findings made in the ABP case.

While I am grateful to have finally received a result in court, after numerous unwarranted delays and the feeling of living in purgatory for over a year, I am shocked and extremely disappointed by this court decision.

I believe in clean sport, and in almost two decades as a professional tennis player, hundreds of tournaments and two Grand Slam titles, I have passed more than 200 blood and urine tests for banned substances – all of which came back negative by August 29. 2022 year.

Ahead of the tough 2022 season, on the recommendation of my trusted team and physical therapist, I looked into nutritional supplements. None of the ingredients listed in these new supplements contained banned substances, but we now know, and the court agreed, that one of them was contaminated with roxadustat. I was tested almost every week after my initial positive test until the first half of 2023, all came back negative.

Despite this evidence, ITIA only charged ABP after the panel of experts learned of my identity, causing two of the three experts to suddenly change their minds in favor of ITIA’s charges. The ITIA was based solely on the opinions of these experts, who analyzed only my blood parameters, which had remained in the same range for over 10 years.

This panel of experts ignored the fact that no banned substances were ever found in my blood or urine samples, with the sole exception of a positive test on August 29 for roxadustat, which was present at an extremely low level and which, given my negative test three days before my positive test could only have been caused by accidental exposure to roxadustat.

I am deeply grateful for the support I have received from my family, friends and tennis fans around the world. I continue to train and do everything in my power to clear my name of these false accusations and get back on the field. I intend to challenge this decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and use all legal options to challenge the company that produces the relevant supplements,” Simona Halep said on social media.

Check out this Instagram post

A post shared by Simona Halep (@simonahalep)