In November 2017, the season with the most changes in the WTA rankings lead, Romanian Simona Halep open the champagne afterwards Closed Tennis Court World No. 1. A few months later, in Paris, Halep finally clinched her first Grand Slam title after three failed attempts. He did the same a year later against the legendary Serena Williams on grass at Wimbledon.
However, in 2022, five years after reaching the top of the charts, everything went wrong The tennis player from Constanta, basking in a sea of doubts and away from the tennis that propelled her to the top, turned her career around and changed coaches in the spring.
In October of that same year, Patrick Mouratoglou ordered, to everyone’s surprise, Halep fails doping test. According to Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU), Traces of Roxadustat were found on his bodya substance similar to EPO, is used in the treatment of patients with anemia caused by chronic kidney disease.
I have been provisionally banned for 8 months despite having sent the ITF all the evidence of my contamination last December. I don’t ask for any special treatment, but I am able to accept the court. I don’t think it’s fair. How long will it last? pic.twitter.com/ZwcMzXKnd0
— Simona Halep (@Simona_Halep) April 27, 2023
“In my entire career I never thought about cheatingThe tennis player claimed that she was also accused of violations on her bio passport in May. “It’s against my values and it’s against the way I was raised.” I will fight to the end to prove that I never knowingly took any prohibited substance. (…) i feel betrayed“.
judgment that never comes
this Friday, 11 months after his positive doping result was made publicHalep regretted another delay in the trial, which was scheduled to start this week. “really frustrating’, he assured. “I’ve always said that All I ask is to be judged, nothing more.i don’t ask for any special treatment. Just being judged. (…) It is difficult to explain all that these delays have caused me”.
Darren CahillThe Romanian, who will be Romania’s coach from 2016 to 2022, echoed the words of his former student on social networks. “Another delay,” he said on his Instagram profile. “This process is managed by the ITF (International Tennis Federation) And by ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency) in a terrible way. They have no respect for the athlete or her condition and we have spent almost a year with no fix. It’s not fair.”
Meanwhile, the clock ticked and Halep, 31, remained far from the ski slopes.precisely This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Romanian’s last professional game. That was at the 2022 US Open, where she trailed No. 124 in the WTA rankings, losing in the first round to Ukraine’s Daria Snigur (6-2, 0-6, 6- 4). for his final victoryinstead, You must go back to August 15, 2022when she defeated Anastasiya Potápova in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters 1000.
In despair over a trial that will never come, the Romanian, who was recently on holiday in Athens (Greece), could only share her impressions on social networks. “When life gives you a hundred reasons to break down and cry, show you have a million reasons to smile.’, he wrote in a photo a few meters from the Parthenon.
