The top-ranked UK tennis player, Simona Halep, avenges doping accusations and is cleared to return to the court: Justice prevails

© AP

The International Tribunal for Sports (TAS) decided on Tuesday afternoon to reduce the four-year doping suspension for Simona Halep, the former number one in women's tennis, to nine months.

The 32-year-old Romanian has been sidelined since October 7, 2022 when she was provisionally suspended. The nine-month suspension will be retroactive to that date (until July 6, 2023), meaning Halep had already served her sentence. The Romanian tennis star said in an initial response that she “can't wait to return” to tennis.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) banned Halep until the end of 2026 in September last year for two doping rule violations. On the one hand, she tested positive for a banned product during the 2022 US Open, and on the other hand, irregularities were found in her biological passport. Halep did not accept it and went to the TAS to challenge the suspension. She insisted that the positive doping test at the US Open was due to a contaminated nutritional supplement. She also did not accept the three infringements on her biological passport.

© AFP

“I have always been an impeccable athlete,” the Romanian continued in her statement, in which she also deplored the “scandalous accusations” against her and the “seemingly unlimited resources” deployed against her. “In the end, the truth prevailed, even though it took much longer than I would have liked.”

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