Former world number one and two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has been provisonally suspended from tennis following a positive doping test at this years US Open
A statement from the International Tennis Agency said, “Halep, who has a WTA ranking of 9, provided a sample whilst competing at the US Open in August 2022. The sample was split into A and B sample contained FG-4592 (Roxadustat), which is a prohibited substance listed in the 2022 World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited List.”
Roxadustat is an anti-anaemia drug which stimulates the production of red blood cells in the body.
The Romanian announced a few weeks ago that her 2022 season was over after undergoing surgery to help resolve breathing issues that have hindered her for the last few years. Halep’s most recent match was her opening round loss at Flushing Meadows to Ukrainian qualifier Daria Snigur.
In a long statement released on her social media accounts, Halep said “today begins the hardest match of my life: a fight for the truth. I have been notified that I tested positive for a substance called Roxadustat in an extremely low quality, which came as the biggest shock of my life.”
The 31-year-old went on to say “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.”
Halep also stated that she will ‘fight under the end’ to prove that she did not knowingly take any prohibited substance.
The 2018 Roland Garros and 2019 Wimbledon champion suffered various injuries in 2021 and fell outside the world’s top 10 in the rankings for the first time in over six years. She returned to full fitness in 2022, and after a strong start to her season, lost in the 2nd round at Roland Garros.
In her defeat to Qinwen Zheng in Paris, Halep explained that she had suffered from a panic attack during the match, but recovered quickly, reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals and winning the WTA 1000 event in Toronto.
The Romanian began working with Patrick Mouratoglou, the former coach of Serena Williams, at the start of the season, but the 52-year-old recently decided to join Holger Rune’s team while Halep continued her recovery from surgery.
Halep’s provisional positive test is the biggest doping story in tennis since Maria Sharapova’s in 2016, where the former 5-time Grand Slam champion was banned for two years after taking Meldonium, a substance added to the list of prohibited substances at the beginning of that year.
