The International Tennis Integrity Agency has barred two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep from professional tennis for four years for drug offences.
According to the ITIA, the 31-year-old Romanian was charged with two doping offences: failing a drug test during the 2022 U.S. Open and abnormalities in her Athlete Biological Passport.
A panel determined that Halep "had committed intentional anti-doping rule violations."
Halep has been suspended indefinitely since October 2022. The four-year prohibition will be in effect until October 6, 2026.
In 2017, Halep topped the WTA rankings. She won Wimbledon in 2019, defeating Serena Williams in the final, a year after winning the French Open.
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Halep hopes to challenge the judgement to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, blaming it on a tainted supplement.
“I am continuing to train and do everything in my power to clear my name of these false allegations and return to the court,” Halep said in a statement.
She said she also would “pursue all legal remedies against the supplement company in question.”
Despite hearing from Halep and her expert scientific witnesses, the ITIA tribunal determined that the player committed both offences.
“The tribunal accepted Halep's argument that they had taken a contaminated supplement, but determined the volume the player ingested could not have resulted in the concentration of Roxadustat found in the positive sample,” the ITIA said.
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An expert panel had reviewed Halep's biological passport profile. Such passports provide a baseline reading of chemicals in an athlete's body and are thought to aid in the detection of doping.
According to the tribunal, the anomalies in Halep's profile were caused by "likely doping."
(With AP inputs)
