As Simona Halep vows to appeal her four-year ban from competition for doping charges and the news comes with another big twist a in a story that has been on the tennis scene for quite a time now.
The former WTA World No. 1 was suspended by an International Tennis Integrity Agency tribunal earlier in September this year, having already serving a provisional suspension that initiated in Oct 2022 after testing positive for Roxadustat – the banned substance.
The tribunal in its verdict noted that the 2-time GS champion had committed breaches of international anti-doping rules with reference to two charges but the Romanian has now filed an appeal with CAS for the decision of the tribunal to be overruled.
If the ban stays the 32-year-old will not be able to compete again until Oct 2026 and by that time she will turn 35.
After hit with ban, Halep in her statement contested that she had “never knowingly or intentionally used any prohibited substance.”
CAS has not given a timeframe for the appeal to be heard but noted that the WTA star would be free to appeal its ruling via the Swiss Federal Tribunal if she finds it against her. Now Halep’s that time coach Patrick Mouratoglou has jumped in to make a shock revelation about the use of the performance enhancement drug.
The Frenchman who was a long-time coach of WTA Icon Serena Williams confirmed his team were part of the decision making process to give Halep collagen, which enhances the bone-density and slows their aging.
The ITIA report that led to Halep’s ban confirmed that physiotherapist Candice Gohier who joined forces with the Romanian in April 2022 was the person who approved the collagen supplement for her.
Now Mouratoglou in his statement has claimed that he was also part of the team that recommended her former charge collagen that was adulterated with a banned substance.
“I feel responsible for what happened because it’s my team, so me basically me, who brought her this collagen,” said Mouratoglou in an Instagram post.
“It opened my eyes to the fact that any athlete can become contaminated tomorrow because apparently, this happens more and more.
“This is terrible because you are completely innocent, your reputation is impacted, hurt by the fact that your name has to do with doping even though you didn’t do any doping.
“Your career is stopped for a period of time that is extremely long. It can affect your whole career, it affects your reputation for a very unfair reason because you have done nothing.
“So it opened by eyes that it can happen to anyone, and the companies that you decide to go with for supplements, you have to be sure at 100% that this cannot happen.”
“I feel confident for the future of Simona with her appeal to the CAS, because it’s an independent tribunal,” he said.
“We have done all possible tests to be able to establish that we are talking about a contamination. I’m very confident that this independent tribunal will recognize the fact that she never did doping.
“She is a victim and she has to come back to the court and be able to compete as soon as possible.”