Caroline Wozniacki has urged other players not to slander Simona Halep after she was handed a four-year tennis ban.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) slapped Halep with a four-year ban for violating the sport’s anti-doping program. She tested positive for roxadustat at the 2022 U.S. Open and has been on temporary suspension ever since.
The personal tribunal set up to investigate Halep recently decided to ban her from participating in any tennis-related activities for four years. Once the news became public, there were mixed reactions from players, experts and fans.
While some have come out in support of her, many have remained silent on the issue, but there have also been some, notably Serena Williams and her husbands Alexis Ohanian and Eugenie Bouchard Er, took an unabashed dig at Halep on social media.
Former world number one Wozniacki came out in support of Halep and urged her peers to at least show the 31-year-old some respect until the final verdict is announced.
“Rival views influence public opinion. There should be more respect, at least until the final verdict. Everyone should ‘accurately’ view the case as a final verdict without any assumptions,” she said (via Sports Illustrated”).
“If it’s contamination, it’s just contamination, not an entire career of cheating! If everyone sees (the accused athletes) as cheaters, how can they get back into the sport? Ruining careers and lives because of contamination !!…Everyone could be in the same situation!” she added.
Wozniacki also questioned why only athletes were punished while their teams, the people responsible for handling everything for them, were never held accountable.
“It’s simply not fair that the athletes receive all the punishment without the team. They hire staff to do this work for them; they are not experts in nutrition or chemistry. The staff should receive most of the punishment…that is their responsibility,” she expressed.
Like Wozniacki, 18-time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova recently came to Halep’s defense and called for her to be presumed innocent.
(Disclaimer: It’s worth noting that Caroline Wozniacki has since come out to say that her quote was not genuine but came from someone pretending to be her. Wertheim herself admitted the mistake and hastily The original story has been modified.)
‘I was told that the players hate me because I beat them’ – Simona Halep on players taking digs at her
In a recent interview, Simona Halep said she was aware of the subtle taunts being directed at her by her teammates on the WTA Tour following the announcement of her four-year ban.
The former world number one said that while everyone has the right to judge her, she believes players focus on her because they have lost to her over the years.
“I think everyone has the right to judge me because the court found me at fault. I was told today that those players hate me because I beat them,” she said.
editor
Sankalp Srivastava