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Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended after she tested positive for a banned substance during this year’s US Open.
In what is tennis’ biggest drugs controversy since the Maria Sharapova saga, the Romanian world No 9’s sample was found to have contained the blood-booster Roxadustat. She denied wrongdoing in a post on social media.
Halep, a former Wimbledon champion, was beaten in the first round of the tournament in New York City by unseeded Daria Snigur of Ukraine.
The 31-year-old two-time Grand Slam champion is ineligible to compete pending the analysis of her ‘B’ sample.
The bombshell news was announced on Friday by the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which oversees anti-doping and other integrity issues for the sport.
In a statement, Halep said the prohibited substance had been found in ‘extremely low quantity’ and described the finding as the ‘biggest shock of my life’.
Simona Halep tested positive for a banned substance and has been provisionally suspended
Halep, 31, took to social media to protest her innocence after the bombshell announcement
‘Today begins the hardest match of my life: a fight for the truth,’ Halep wrote on social media.
‘I have been notified that I have tested positive for a substance called Roxadustat in an extremely low quantity, which came as the biggest shock of my life.
‘Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values I have been educated with. Facing such an unfair situation, I feel completely confused and betrayed.
‘I will fight until the end to prove that I never knowingly took any prohibited substance and I have faith that sooner or later, the truth will come out.
‘It’s not about titles or the money. It is about honour, and the love story I have developed with the game of tennis over the last 25 years.’
Halep is one of the stars of the women’s game and won the Wimbledon title back in 2019
Roxadustat is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The drug is used to help spare patients with kidney disease the pain of injections if they develop anaemia.
Until recently, symptoms could be treated only with medicine that patients usually inject themselves, alongside iron infusions in hospital twice a year. But the new tablet, which is taken three times a week at home, has proved to be just as effective.
It works by mimicking the body’s natural response to reduced oxygen in the blood – blocking an enzyme that limits the production of new red blood cells while increasing the absorption of iron in the blood.
Studies show the drug is just as effective at boosting oxygen levels and alleviating symptoms as the current treatments.
Halep is one of the most recognisable names in women’s tennis. She won the French Open in 2018 before lifting the Wimbledon title the following year, while she is also a former world number one.
Former World No 1 Halep had a nose job in September and said that her 2022 season was over
Halep was surprisingly defeated in the first round of the US Open and won’t play again in 2022
She last month underwent surgery on her nose to help her breathing and, she says, because she didn’t like how she looked.
Halep said at the time that she would not play again this year. Taking to social media from her hospital bed, she wrote: ‘When I lost at the US Open, I realised that I am completely exhausted mentally.
‘Having problems with my breathing for many years already and becoming worse with time, I decided to follow the advice of my doctors and do the needed surgery.
‘I could never do it earlier because I never found the necessary three months for recovery, because tennis was always the first priority in my life.
‘But I felt it’s the right time to do it also to do something for myself as a person. That i why I did also the estethic (sic) part, that I wanted to do for a long time as I did not like my nose at all.
‘So I did, I solved the functional part and the estethic (sic) part. I know many of you can understand me. I don’t know how long the recovery will take… what is sure is that this year, I won’t be able to compete.’
Halep also had breast reduction surgery in 2009, when she was 17, which she has said helped her career.
At the time, she said: ‘It’s the weight that troubles me. My ability to react quickly, my breasts make me uncomfortable when I play.’
Halep’s positive test has echoes of the controversy involving Sharapova.
The Russian star tested positive for heart-attack drug meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open and was initially banned for two years before she had her suspension cut to 15 months on appeal.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled at the time that Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam champion, had no intention of violating the regulations.
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