Simona Halep wins reduction in doping ban
Simona Halep is free to return to professional tennis immediately after her sport’s top judges reduced her doping ban from four years to nine months on Tuesday.
Halep, a two-time major champion, hasn’t played in a tournament since the 2022 U.S. Open, when she tested positive for the banned drug Roxadustat, as the Deseret News previously reported. The nine-month ban has been applied retroactively.
Halep, 32, was handed the four-year doping ban last fall by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. The agency believed she was responsible for violating the sport’s anti-doping rules, while Halep argued that she was the victim of contaminated supplements.
On Tuesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport mostly accepted Halep’s arguments, determining that she was “not entirely at fault” for her positive drug test, according to ESPN.
“The three judges decided Halep ‘established on the balance of probabilities’ her positive test for a banned blood-boosting substance ‘entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement,’” ESPN reported.
The judges also ruled that the International Tennis Integrity Agency must pay Halep around $22,650 to help cover her legal fees.
Halep, who is Romanian, has shared videos on social media of herself training while serving her doping ban. She has not yet announced when she plans to return to the WTA tour.
The French Open, which Halep won in 2018, begins on May 20.
