Former Wimbledon champion Simona Halep has had her doping ban reduced from four years to nine months following a successful appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Halep is a two-time Grand Slam winner and will now resume her tennis career after a 16-month absence.
Originally banned from the WTA Tour in October 2022, Halep had feared her career would be cut short as a result of the ban. Instead, the now 32-year-old is free to return to action, following a successful appeal at CAS.
Her case was partially upheld, with the ban taken from the original four years down to nine months. But, it was ruled the tennis ace had not intentionally taken the banned substance Roxadustat – the performance-enhancing drug used to boost red blood cells.
“Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it, the CAS Panel determined that Ms Halep had established, on the balance of probabilities, that the Roxadustat entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement which she had used in the days shortly before 29 August 2022,” read the CAS judgement.
“The Roxadustat, as detected in her sample, came from that contaminated product. As a result, the CAS Panel determined that Ms Halep had also established, on the balance of probabilities, that her anti-doping rule violations were not intentional.
“Although the CAS Panel found that Ms Halep did bear some level of fault or negligence for her violations, as she did not exercise sufficient care when using the Keto MCT supplement, it concluded that she bore no significant fault or negligence.”
A separate charge had been levelled against Halep in May 2023, which revolved around irregularities with her athlete biological passport. However, that also ruled in her favour during the CAS trial, with the judgement dismissing the second charge.
The former world number one is expected to return to tennis immediately having had the ban lifted, where she’ll look to compete for Grand Slam titles once again. Halep’s Wimbledon win back in 2019 was the second major championship triumph of her career, with the Romanian having won the French Open one year prior.
She had become just the third Romanian woman ever to reach the top 10 of the WTA rankings, and only the second to win a Grand Slam, doing so after Virginia Ruzici. A natural on clay surfaces, Halep will be keen to get back on the court as soon as possible, as she looks to make up for lost time spent away from the game.
