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Verdict sparks tennis earthquake!
Former tennis world number one Simona Halep has achieved a massive reduction in her doping ban – and is allowed back on the court immediately.
Halep before the CAS hearing in February
© AFP/SID/FABRICE COFFRINI
Great success at the Green Table for Simona Halep: The International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has reduced the doping ban against the former tennis world number one from Romania from four years to nine months.
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The 32-year-old has already served this sentence, meaning the former French Open and Wimbledon winner can return to professional tennis immediately. It is practically a 180-degree turn in the most spectacular tennis doping case since that of Maria Sharapova (in which the CAS had also reduced the ban).
Simona Halep is allowed back on the tennis court
Halep was banned for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) last year for two anti-doping rule violations. The two-time Grand Slam winner has been out since October 2022 after a temporary ban.
Halep went before the CAS, after a three-day hearing in February she confidently declared: “My faith in the strength of the truth remains intact. I look forward to returning to the tennis courts.”
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CAS evaluates findings differently than the Tennis Tribunal
The CAS agreed with her on Tuesday – at least largely. “After careful consideration of all the evidence presented, the panel concluded that Ms. Halep established, on the balance of probabilities, that roxadustat occurred in her diet through the consumption of a contaminated dietary supplement that she had taken in the days immediately preceding August 29, 2022 The CAS said: “The roxadustat detected in your sample came from this contaminated product.” Furthermore, the judge said, the anomalies in her biological passport were not sufficient to prove doping behavior.
The CAS held Halep “only” with “a certain degree of culpability or negligence for her violations” because “she did not exercise sufficient caution to comply with anti-doping regulations.”
Roxadustat is an anemia medication that stimulates the production of red blood cells in the body.
A “dramatic” 180 degree turnaround
Remarkable: The ITIA came to a completely different conclusion in the Halep case and rated Halep’s explanation as “not realistically possible” in a 125-page judgment based on scientific investigations and comparative samples.
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The CAS has so far only summarized its contrary judgment on two pages; a more detailed explanation is to follow. “It will be interesting to see how they explain that they have come to such a completely different conclusion than the ITIA,” commented the well-known US tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg on X about the surprising, “dramatic” turn of events.
With the CAS saying, the way is clear for Halep’s comeback. Her last Grand Slam match to date was her first-round exit at the US Open 2022, the next major tournament – the French Open in Paris – starts on May 20, 2024.
With Sports Information Service (SID)
2024-03-05 17:28:26
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