Tennis
Anabolic cocktail. Former dopingist breaks at Roland Garros
Beatriz Haddad-Maya / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru
The main sensation of the tournament in Paris was able to prove her innocence.
Brazilian Beatriz Haddad-Maya created a sensation at Roland Garros and made it to the semi-finals of the Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career. For the right to play in the decisive match, the 27-year-old tennis player will compete with Iga Swiatek from Poland.
The path of Beatrice to the main achievement in her career was not easy. Moreover, the athlete has a trail of doping reputation, although disqualification for a gross violation is already in the past.
Major career success
Haddad-Maya is ranked 14th in the WTA rankings and her success in France has already become the biggest success of her career. And before that, at the Grand Slam tournaments, she did not even get to the third round. This year is generally going very well for the Brazilian. She scored nine victories over tennis players from the top ten in the ranking against one in her entire previous career.
Given Beatrice’s powerful run of the season, it could be assumed that she would stay in Paris until the second week. However, few expected to see her in the top four. In the second and third rounds, respectively, Haddad-Maya removed Russians Diana Schneider and Ekaterina Aleksandrova from the path, and then defeated Spaniard Sara Sorribes-Tormo. All three matches were won in three games. The victory over Ons Jaber allowed Beatrice to reach the semi-finals. In total, the Brazilian has spent almost 13 hours on the courts of Paris.
“I dropped out of the Tour for a year”
The late successes of the 27-year-old tennis player are associated with a troubled career. Four times, Haddad-Maya interrupted performances for several months due to surgery. There were other injuries that knocked her out for a long time.
– I had four operations – after this it is difficult to return. There were difficult moments – in addition to operations, I also broke bones in my back and shoulder, I also had to take a break. Because of the damage, I took long breaks 6-7 times, and then started again. And I also dropped out of the Tour for a year, ”said the tennis player.
At the same time, the athlete kept silent about the reasons for “falling out of the Tour”, and in fact there was a very unpleasant story with the use of doping.
In June 2019, the athlete competed at the WTA Croatia Bol Open tournament. After the match with Sorribes-Tormo, anti-doping checked the athlete. A week later, it became known that the test was positive.
“Beatrice Haddad-Maya has been provisionally suspended under Article 8.3.1 of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program pending a ruling on her charge,” the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said in a press release.
In the sample of the athlete, traces of two types of anabolics were found at once – SARM S-22 and SARM LGD-4033. These drugs are often used by dishonest athletes to build muscle mass.
“It wasn’t my fault”
After the suspension, magic lawyers joined the case. They found dietary supplements contaminated with anabolics, which the tennis player allegedly accidentally consumed. In February 2020, instead of a two-year disqualification, the athlete was given only ten months.
“All this time, my legal team and I have met repeatedly to find out their origins. We sent the additives to a WADA-accredited laboratory for testing, and we managed to prove that it was not my fault, the athlete wrote on social networks.
The athlete held her first tournament in September 2020, starting her comeback from 1342nd position in the ranking. However, Beatrice won one ITF tournament after another and within a year she was in the top 100.
Success at Roland Garros has already guaranteed Haddad-Maya a debut in the top ten strongest tennis players on the planet, and if she wins the title, she will even rise to sixth place. However, the higher the Brazilian climbs, the more often they will remember her doping past.
Source: Sportbox
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