Simona Halep has been missing from the WTA Tour since October 2022. The reason: a positive doping test. Now she has received a court ruling that is quite something.
The former tennis world number one Simona Halep has been banned for four years for doping. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Tuesday that an independent court has found the two-time Grand Slam winner from Romania guilty on two counts.
The 31-year-old had been provisionally suspended since last October after testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat. Roxadustat increases the number of red blood cells and, similar to EPO, leads to a better oxygen supply.
In May, she was finally charged with another anti-doping violation related to irregularities in her athlete biological passport.
Halep, who won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon a year later, is thus banned until 6 October 2026. The Romanian can still appeal the ruling.