IMAGE: Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended since October 2022 after testing positive for roxadustat, a banned drug. Photograph: Simona Halep/X
Former Wimbledon and French Open champion Simona Halep saw her four-year doping ban cut to nine months by the top court for global sport on Tuesday, in a ruling that represents a major victory for the Romanian former World No 1.
“The CAS Panel has unanimously determined that the four-year period of ineligibility imposed by the ITF Independent Tribunal is to be reduced to a period of ineligibility of nine (9) months starting on 7 October 2022, which period expired on 6 July 2023,” the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said in a statement.
The 32-year-old Romanian has been provisionally suspended since October 2022 after testing positive for roxadustat, a banned drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells, at the US Open that year.
Tennis anti-doping authorities also charged Halep with another doping offence last year due to irregularities in her athlete biological passport (ABP), a method designed to monitor different blood parameters over time to reveal potential doping.
Halep has vigorously denied the charges.
