New Delhi, Mar 6: After being banned in October 2022 for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), Romanian tennis star Simona Halep’s doping ban has been reduced to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). In a statement, CAS confirmed it, saying the ban is now over.
“The CAS panel has unanimously determined that the four years of ineligibility…is to be reduced to a period of ineligibility of nine months starting in October 2022, which period expired in July 2023.”
It means two Grand Slam champion Simon Halep’s ban is already finished and she is now allowed to play professional tennis again. Halep sent a heartwarming message to tennis fans and promised to be back in the game.
“Throughout this long and difficult process, I have maintained my belief that the truth would eventually come out, and a just decision would be reached, and always have been a clean athlete.”
Halep, 32, was banned from playing professional tennis in October 2022 by the ITIA after she tested positive for roxadustat during the US Open tournament.
Winning two major tournaments in tennis—the French Open in 2018 and the Wimbledon Championship in 2019—she was ranked the world’s number one tennis player between 2017 and 2019.