An independent panel overseeing tennis’ anti-doping rules has handed Romania’s Simona Halep a four-year ban, a decision that could effectively end the career of the former world No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion.
Halep, 31, was charged with two separate violations of the sport’s anti-doping rules after she failed a drug test at the 2022 US Open. Halep tested positive for Roxadustat, a drug commonly used for people suffering from anemia, a condition which is due to a low level of red blood cells.
Roxadustat is on the banned list because it artificially stimulates the production of hemoglobin and red blood cells, which is a technique for players to gain more stamina. The drug does this by causing the body to produce more of the hormone erythropoietin, commonly referred to as “EPO,” which plays an important role in the production of red blood cells.
Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body. More red blood cells can lead to increased endurance, which has made EPO a particularly common performance-enhancing substance in professional cycling for years.
In addition, Halep was also accused of having irregularities in her blood compared to samples the agency had access to as part of her so-called biological passport, which provides doping enforcement officials with a baseline. The three-person panel hearing the case between the International Tennis Integrity Agency and Halep found that these irregularities indicated the use of banned substances during the season.
Halep, who had never previously failed a drug test, had backed her claim that Roxadustat was present in a tainted supplement she had taken before the US Open, but that it was not listed as one of the ingredients. The court accepted this argument, but after hearing expert testimony, concluded that supplement contamination could not explain the amount of Roxadustat found in her urine.
Karen Moorhouse, the chief executive of the ITIA, said the agency welcomed the decision after a years-long process that had drawn significant criticism from both Halep, the coaches she has worked with and other players. Moorhouse said about 8,000 pages of evidence were reviewed.
“The ITIA followed the appropriate procedures as we would with any other person — under the World Anti-Doping Code — fulfilling our purpose and responsibility to uphold the principle of fair competition, on behalf of sport,” he said.
In a statement released through her communications team, Halep said she had never knowingly or intentionally taken a banned substance and would appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which acts as the highest court for sports disputes. He said the evidence he had presented to the court was compelling.
“While I am grateful to finally have a result after many unreasonable delays and the feeling of living in purgatory for over a year, I am both shocked and disappointed by their decision,” Halep said.
The suspension is the most popular decision in the sport since Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam champion and one of the world’s highest-paid athletes, received a two-year ban in 2016 for a doping violation.
Sharapova tested positive for a heart drug said to improve blood flow and allow athletes to recover faster in January 2016, shortly after it was added to a banned substance list.
Sharapova quickly admitted that for 10 years she had been taking a heart drug whose active ingredient is Meldonium to treat what she said were a variety of health problems. He didn’t know the drug was banned, he said. Sharapova was 29 when she was suspended and although she returned to tennis, she retired in 2020 when she was 32.
If the Court of Arbitration for Sport upholds the suspension, Halep will be banned from tennis until October 2026, having been provisionally suspended for almost a year.
