Simona Halep doping ban: Romanian wins CAS appeal, set to return to action immediately

Simona Halep's four-year doping ban has been reduced to just nine months following her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Having served a provisional suspension for that period and more, the former World No. 1 will be allowed to return to the sport with immediate effect.

The ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency) levied a suspension on Halep after she had tested positive for Roxadustat at the 2022 US Open. After multiple delays in the hearing process, she was handed a four-year ban last year -- one the Romanian contested immediately.

Professing her innocence, Simona Halep went to CAS hoping to get a reduced suspension. The hearing took place earlier this year, following which Halep appeared hopeful.

On Tuesday, the results of the hearing were published by CAS, ruling that the sentence has been reduced to just nine months. Having been suspended since October, Halep's suspension date ended by July 2023. Now, the two-time Grand Slam champion is free to return to action whenever she chooses to.

In a statement release, CAS asserted that careful consideration of the evidence presented by Simona Halep proved that the Roxadustat entered her system through a contamination in her nutrient supplements.

"Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it, the CAS Panel determined that Ms. Halep had established, on the balance of probabilities, that the Roxadustat entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement, which she had used in the days shortly before 29 August 2022 and that the Roxadustat, as detected in her sample, came from that contaminated product," the statement read.

Therefore, the Panel adjudged her innocent of intentional doping, concluding that she bore "no significant fault or negligence" in the matter.

"As a result, the CAS Panel determined that Ms. Halep had also established, on the balance of probabilities, that her anti-doping rule violations were not intentional.

"Although the CAS Panel found that Ms. Halep did bear some level of fault or negligence for her violations, as she did not exercise sufficient care when using the Keto MCT supplement, it concluded that she bore no significant fault or negligence," CAS added.

---

Simona Halep also cleared of Athlete Biological Passport charge

Simona Halep

In the original ITIA suspension, Simona Halep was also alleged to have committed blood doping after her ABP (Athlete Biological Passport) was analyzed.

CAS has now cleared Halep of those charges as well, arguing that the ITIA did not sufficiently establish that she had violated tennis' anti-doping rule.

"With respect to the charge concerning Ms. Halep's ABP, the ITIA bore the onus of establishing (to the standard of comfortable satisfaction) that Ms. Halep had used a prohibited substance and/or prohibited method."

"Contrary to the reasoning of the first instance tribunal, the CAS Panel determined that it was appropriate in the circumstances to consider the results of a private blood sample given by Ms. Halep... Having regard to the evidence as a whole, the CAS Panel was not comfortably satisfied that an anti-doping rule violation under Article 2.2. of the TADP had occurred. It therefore dismissed that charge," CAS ruled.