Banned for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), the 2018 Roland-Garros winners were reduced to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Tuesday.
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She can officially return to competitive tennis. Having tested positive for Roxadustat during the 2022 US Open, first suspended for four years by the International Tennis Federation’s Independent Court in September 2023, Simona Halep had her sentence reduced to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Tuesday, March 5 ( HOUR). “The CAS panel unanimously decided that the four-year suspension imposed by the ITF’s independent tribunal should be reduced to a nine-month suspension starting on 7 October 2022, a period which expired on 6 July 2023.” the body explained in a statement.
Unlike the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), CAS supported the arguments of Simona Halep, who justified her positive test by taking an infected nutritional supplement. The Court of Lausanne also ruled, based on a “a private blood sample was given by Mrs. Aleppo on September 9, 2022, in the context of a surgical operation”that the anomaly in the biological passport of the Romanian was indeed the result of this medical intervention, considering it improbable “doping scenarios presented by ITIA”.
Contamination argument retained
The former world number 1, who complained about the delays imposed by the ITIA instruction, which she accused her of “kill your career” he reacted with a press release expressing his “I can’t wait to get back on the track”. Howard Jacobs, one of his three lawyers, also wanted to point out that according to this new decision his client “should have been eligible to play in the last two Grand Slam tournaments.”.
“Eventually the truth prevailed, although it took much longer than I would have liked.”
Simona Halep, former world number 1in the official press release
Absent from the professional circuit for more than 16 months, the Romanian, who has won two major tournaments (Roland-Garros 2018 and Wimbledon 2019), can therefore return as soon as she wants. Since she is currently unranked, she will have to hope for invitations for quick access to the most prestigious tournaments.