Romania’s Simona Halep has been provisionally banned after returning a optimistic pattern
Former ladies’s world primary tennis participant Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended after testing optimistic for a banned substance in a pattern taken on the US Open earlier this 12 months, tennis officers have introduced.
The Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company (ITIA) issued an announcement on Friday confirming the information that the two-time Grand Slam winner can be sidelined whereas her case is investigated.
“The ITIA despatched the participant a pre-charge discover of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation on 7 October 2022,” the group said.
“Halep, who has a WTA rating of 9, supplied a pattern while competing on the US Open in August 2022.
“The pattern was cut up into A and B samples and the next evaluation discovered that the A pattern contained FG-4592 (Roxadustat), which is a prohibited substance listed within the 2022 World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) Prohibited Listing.
“Adversarial Analytical Findings for non-specified substances carry a compulsory provisional suspension,” it added.
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The ITIA stated that Halep had requested that her B pattern be analyzed, which confirmed the identical outcome for Roxadustat, which is an anti-anemia drug.
“Whereas provisionally suspended, the participant is ineligible to compete in or attend any sanctioned tennis occasions organized by the governing our bodies of the game,” famous the ITIA, which governs anti-doping laws in tennis consistent with the World Anti-Doping Company (WADA) Code.
Halep is a two-time Grand Slam winner, triumphing on the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon the next 12 months.
She has additionally been a finalist on the Australian Open, and first reached the world primary spot again in 2017. In whole, Halep has spent 64 weeks on the prime of the WTA charts throughout her profession.
Halep suffered a shock first-round exit on the US Open to Ukraine’s Daria Snigur in August, after which she underwent nasal surgical procedure – ending her 2022 season.
Responding to the information of her provisional suspension, the Romanian issued a message to followers on her social media channels.
“At the moment begins the toughest match of my life: a struggle for the reality,” wrote Halep.
“I’ve been notified that I’ve examined optimistic for a substance referred to as Roxadustat in a particularly low amount, which got here as the most important shock of my life.
“All through my entire profession, the thought of dishonest by no means even crossed my thoughts as soon as, as it’s completely in opposition to all of the values I’ve been educated with.
“Dealing with such an unfair state of affairs, I really feel fully confused and betrayed.
“I’ll struggle till the tip to show that I by no means knowingly took any prohibited substance, and I’ve religion that eventually, the reality will come out.”
The doping scandal is already being described as the most important to hit ladies’s tennis since Russian icon Maria Sharapova was banned for 15 months in 2016.
Sharapova was punished for taking meldonium after she and her crew have been unaware that it had been added to the listing of banned substances by WADA.
