tennis Icon Serena Williams caused a stir after posting the shocking news on social media Simona Halep banned for four years. Halep was dealt a devastating blow when he was suspended for four years for two anti-doping rule violations.
The Wimbledon and French Open champion has been suspended from October 2022 for failing a test for the blood-raising substance Roxadustat. Halep’s hearing was postponed several times before she was charged a second time for an athlete’s biological passport violation.
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An independent tribunal upheld both charges on Tuesday. Halep will not play until October 6, 2026, but the two-time Grand Slam winner has vowed to appeal the decision.
Unexpectedly, however, Williams seemed to cast some shadow over the Romanians over the court’s ruling. In 2019, Halep won Wimbledon against Williams. Williams was aiming for an eighth title, but ended her career with a seventh title after losing to Halep in straight sets at the tournament.
Williams posted the message with a cryptic message: “Eight is a better number.” Most tennis fans believed it was Williams’ rebuke of Halep’s actions in beating her in the Wimbledon final.
Even more interestingly, Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, retweeted a photo of himself wearing a T-shirt that read, “Keep kids away from drugs.” Williams wore this T-shirt in 2019 when he faced off against Maria Sharapova. It caused a stir at the time and the Russian was banned for 15 months after failing a drugs test in 2016.
Ohanian captioned the photo: “Some fashions are timeless.” Williams commented: “Honestly, this doesn’t go out of style.” Williams could have tied Margaret Court’s 24 Grand Slam records Another Grand Slam title. In 2017, she won her 23rd Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, which was also her last Grand Slam title.
Williams did receive some backlash for his comments. A Romanian tennis fan account posted documents from the International Tennis Federation in 2019, which showed that Halep underwent 27 inspections throughout the season and found no problems.
Eugenie Bouchard also commented: “I was told not to tweet today.” Many also took it to be a comment on Halep’s ruling, with Bouchard having criticized others who have been temporarily suspended for failing drug tests in the past. Athletes have commented.
You can download the full pdf file where I took this screenshot via the link below. It comes from the ITF website. https://t.co/jNphvKQCRX
If you would rather download it from the source, the page will no longer be displayed, but you can still access it from the Wayback Machine… https://t.co/LZTKFrKWlD
— Tennis Romania (@WTARomania) September 12, 2023
The number of majors is the only metric that can determine GOAT status. Class is a lesson to me. A huge. Without it, it annihilates all others. Keep fighting Simona Halep. #simonahalep
— Daniel Caputo (@DanCaputo) September 12, 2023
Halep just got banned for 4 years due to doping issues…a mockery of Halep who beat Serena in the Wimbledon final, preventing Serena from winning her 8th Wimbledon title
— Tennis By The Hour (@tennisbythehour) September 12, 2023
Halep defended herself and blamed traces of banned drugs on contaminated supplements. “I am continuing to train and do everything in my power to clear myself of these false accusations and return to court,” she said in a statement. She also said she will work to clear her name and will ” Pursue all legal remedies against relevant supplement companies.”
However, the findings ruled: “The court accepted Halep’s argument that she had taken a contaminated supplement but determined that the amount ingested by the player could not have contributed to the concentration of roxadustat found in the positive sample.”
Halep took aim at the federation in her statement: “ITIA relies solely on the opinions of these experts, who only focus on my blood parameters – which have remained within the same range for more than a decade,” she said.
“The organization ignored the fact that, apart from testing positive for roxadustat on August 29, no banned substances were ever found in my blood or urine samples.”
Chief executive Karen Moorhouse said the ITIA had followed appropriate processes under the World Anti-Doping Code.
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