Simona Halep finally gets tribunal hearing in anti-doping case

Provisionally suspended since last October for testing positive for Roxadustat, Simona Halep – after several initial postponements – has finally got her hearing at the anti-doping tribunal. Her fate should be decided within two weeks

Simona Halep | © Tennis Majors

Rémi Bourrières

June 29, 2023

It’s not the end of the story, far from it, but it’s an important step. Suspended provisionally in October 2022 after testing positive for Roxadustat following her defeat in the first round of the US Open, Simona Halep has finally been invited to put her case before a court in London, after several initial postponements requested by the ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency), responsible for the fight against doping and corruption in tennis.

Her hearing, which began yesterday, continues today and will result in a verdict expected within two weeks, according to the Romanian press.

Tennis Majors

Halep had criticised the successive postponements as seriously infringing her rights and her mental health. At the end of April, in an exclusive interview with Tennis Majors, she explained that she had commissioned independent experts to verify that the product detected in her urine (an anti-anaemic drug which stimulates the production of red blood cells) was linked to a food supplement, which had allegedly been contaminated. Since then, the case of the former world No 1 has taken a turn for the worse, with the ITIA announcing last May that it had detected irregularities in her biological passport.

According to the ITIA’s wishes, both cases were to be heard at the same time. Halep faces a suspension of between two and four years. Once the verdict has been handed down, she will have the option of appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. The soap opera is therefore far from over.