Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep says that her career will probably be over if she fails to win an appeal against her 2022 suspension for doping.
The appeal hearing to challenge her four-year ban for doping is scheduled for February, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Tuesday.
“If it’s four years (ban), I don’t know how I’m going to handle it. It will probably be the end of my career. And for something I didn’t do and it’s not my fault, it’s even more catastrophic,” Halep told euronews.ro.
She will be 35 when the ban expires in October 2026.
She said she wished her coach Patrick Mouratoglou had come out earlier to take responsibility for the contaminated supplement: “It was difficult for me, because I always trusted my team, my previous team and everyone I work with (…) My confidence has taken a blow.”
The three-day hearing is set for Feb. 7-9 for her appeal against the International Tennis Integrity Agency.
A verdict can take several months from a panel of three judges.
Halep, 32, was banned in September after an investigation into her positive test at the 2022 US Open that later included irregularities in her biological passport.
Halep, who reached No. 1 in the WTA rankings in 2017, has claimed contaminated nutritional supplements caused her positive test for Roxadustat.
The European Union’s medicines agency says the substance stimulates the body to produce more of the natural hormone erythropoietin, or EPO which has long been a doping product favored by endurance athletes.
She won the French Open in 2018 and beat Serena Williams to take the Wimbledon title in 2019.
Serena Williams is ‘arrogant’ says Romanian player after Simona Halep doping swipe
