New York: Former world number one Simona Halep is suing the Canadian company that produced a nutritional supplement that she says earned her a four-year ban for doping that could end her career.
Halep is seeking more than $10 million in damages from Quantum Nutrition, which operates as Schinoussa Superfoods, after testing positive at the 2022 US Open for Roxadustat, a drug often used by people suffering from anemia.
Roxadustat is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances because it can increase hemoglobin and red blood cell production, thereby boosting endurance.
Romanian Halep, 32, said she used Schinoussa supplements during the 2022 Flushing Meadows tournament and that the Keto MCT she took was contaminated with Roxadustat, which was not disclosed on the label.
The two-time Grand Slam champion said she had never used banned substances and that Quantum’s negligence and false claims that its supplement was legal had damaged her career and caused humiliation.
Halep is also seeking punitive damages. She filed the suit in a New York state court in Manhattan.
Quantum, based in Scarborough, Ontario, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Its founder told Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail in October that Halep was looking for a scapegoat and that his company was becoming “the scapegoat.”
Halep’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
Halep is appealing the four-year ban imposed last September by an International Tennis Integrity Agency tribunal.
While acknowledging that Halep did not know the supplement might contain Roxadustat, the court said contamination could not explain the amount of drug found in her August 29, 2022 urine sample.
Halep appealed the decision last week to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
“I really believe that the truth will come out and that the day of our appearance on the ground will soon come,” Halep told reporters.
Halep won Roland Garros in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019.
The case is Halep v. Quantum Nutrition Inc et al, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.
