Lausanne (Switzerland): former Wimbledon and Roland-Garros champion Simona Halep was confident she would soon return to tennis after leaving sport’s highest court on Friday after three days of proceedings to appeal a doping suspension that could end her career.
“I have had the opportunity to present my defense and I truly believe that the truth will come out and the day I will be on the field will be soon,” Halep told reporters outside the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Swiss city of Lausanne.
The 32-year-old Romanian has been provisionally suspended since October 2022, after testing positive for roxadustat, a banned drug that stimulates red blood cell production, at the US Open that year.
Tennis anti-doping authorities also charged the former world number one with another doping offense last year over irregularities in her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), a method designed to monitor different blood parameters.
Howard Jacobs, Halep’s lawyer, said CAS had heard her arguments, but it was unclear when the court might issue its ruling.
Halep blamed tainted licensed supplements for her positive test at the US Open. She accused the International Tennis Integrity Agency of charging her with violating the PBA after the panel of experts who evaluated her profile learned of her identity.
An independent tribunal accepted Halep’s argument that she took a contaminated supplement, but determined that the volume she ingested could not have resulted in the concentration of roxadustat found in her positive sample.
Halep said if his four-year ban was upheld, it would most likely end his career.
