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Simona Halep's former medical advisor, Dr. Dana Safta, has provided her arguments in support of the former World No. 1 in regards to her doping scandal. Dr. Safta is a former director at Elias Hospital and a respected name in Romanian medicine.
After failing a drug test at the US Open, Halep was given a provisional suspension by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), with a potential ban of four years.
Dr. Safta's hypothesis included a timeline of Halep's drug tests before and after the US Open. She stated how Halep tested negative on August 26 in New York and on August 3 in Toronto. However, on August 29, the Romanian's test came back positive for the banned substance Roxadustat, although in tiny traces that couldn't have been administered by a pill.
Dr. Safta opined that either Halep's sample was contaminated in the laboratory, her recovery supplements were tampered with, or that someone inserted the banned substance into her food (although this last one was hard to believe).
"It’s her own doing, so I'm not going to feel super sympathetic" – Sports writer and broadcaster on Simona Halep’s doping suspension
Sports journalist and commentator Kenny Ducey recently shared his opinion on Simona Halep's doping scandal.
While discussing the matter on the Inside-In podcast, Ducey said that while the news was "shocking," it would have been more so if Halep had been challenging for Majors like she was a few years ago.
"We’re all shocked. She’s been on and off the court this year, and obviously, I think it would be more shocking if this were last year or the year before, where she (was) going deep in the Slams and she obviously won Wimbledon three years ago," Ducey said.
Ducey added that Halep was the last person he would have expected to test positive for a banned substance and that while it was an unfortunate situation, it was of her own making.
"I mean, obviously, it’s her own doing, so I'm not going to feel super sympathetic; I think that it sucks," he continued. "There’s really nothing else to say, and it was definitely surprising and I think that, that wasn’t really someone I expected to come out (with a positive doping test)."
