The famous tennis player was caught doping. On the court will no longer appear?

The US Open-2022 in the women’s singles turned out to be generous with a sensation. A whole group of elite tennis players stumbled on the outskirts of the decisive matches. Anett Kontaveit, Maria Sakkari, Paula Badosa were eliminated in the second round. Daria Kasatkina, Elena Rybakina and Simona Halep retired after the first match. Even doping did not help one of the losers to perform successfully.

The athlete is now counting on indulgence.

It’s not about titles or money

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep performed poorly at the US Open in 2022. Having received the seventh seed, the ex-leader of the world ranking could well claim some success in the tournament. However, Simona left the race before most of the other favorites – already in the first round she lost to the Ukrainian Daria Snigur, who also did not achieve anything significant on the American courts.

Halep’s troubles did not end with an early exit from the prestigious tournament. Later it became known that the Romanian, speaking at the US Open, passed a positive doping test. In Simone’s tests, traces of a prohibited drug, roxadustat, were found.

Photo: © REUTERS/Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

The ninth racket of the world announced her problems herself, informing her subscribers on social networks the bad news. Now the girl is preparing for the most difficult match of her career, which she herself calls the “battle for the truth.” Halep insists that she never took anything forbidden of her own free will, and the amount of the drug found in the sample is extremely small.

“I will fight to the end to prove that I have never knowingly taken any illegal substances, and I believe that sooner or later the truth will come out. It’s not about titles or money. It’s about honor and a love story that I’ve developed playing tennis for the last 25 years,” Halep wrote on social media.

Whether the athlete will be able to get away from serious punishment depends on many factors. How did the cure for anemia turn out to be in the body of a 31-year-old athlete, did she deliberately commit a violation, or is it an accident, did Simone use any unusual lipstick, perhaps kissed a person who took something forbidden – all this will certainly be taken into account.

The very fact of Halep’s denial of malicious intent is not yet absolute proof. Doping fighters have to do a lot of work to determine the degree of guilt of the Romanian. All this, of course, will take some time, but for starters, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has already temporarily suspended Simona. Perhaps she will wait for indulgence, but she will wait outside the court.