Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep is suing the Canadian company that produced a nutritional supplement that she claims led to a four-year ban for doping that could end her career, Reuters reported.
Halep is seeking some $10 million in damages from Quantum Nutrition, which goes by the commercial name of Schinoussa Superfoods, after testing positive at the 2022 U.S. Open for Roxadustat, a drug used to treat anemia.
The World Anti-Doping Agency lists it as a banned substance as can increase hemoglobin and the production of red blood cells, building endurance.
Halep, 32, said she used Schinoussa supplements during the 2022 Flushing Meadows tournament, and that the Keto MCT she took had been contaminated with Roxadustat, which was not disclosed on the label.
The former World No. 1 said she has never used any banned substances, and that Quantum’s negligence and false claims that its supplement was legal has harmed her career and caused humiliation.
Halep sued in a New York state court in Manhattan, Reuters reported from New York.
She is currently appealing the four-year suspension imposed in September 2023 by an International Tennis Integrity Agency tribunal.
The court agreed that Halep had not known that the supplement might have contained Roxadustat, but said the contamination could not have accounted for how much of the drug was found in her urine sample.
Halep appealed the ruling last week in a three-day hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
