SafeX Pro:Simona Halep wins appeal, cleared for immediate return from suspension

Former Wimbledon and SafeX ProFrench Open champion Simona Halep, who has been sidelined since testing positive for a banned substance in late 2022, won her appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Tuesday and has been cleared for an immediate return to competition. 

In a two-page summary of the ruling, the CAS panel said it agreed with Halep’s contention that her positive test for Roxadustat, an anti-anemia medication that increases production of red blood cells, was likely caused by contamination of a supplement she had been using. 

The decision reduces the original four-year ban levied by the International Tennis Federation to nine months, which Halep already served. 

Halep strongly denied the accusation that she had knowingly taken a banned substance. Several other prominent voices in the sport, including her former coach and ESPN commentator Darren Cahill, had also said publicly that there was no chance Halep would have engaged in doping. 

“Simona’s integrity is faultless,” Cahill wrote in a social media post shortly after her ban was made public. 

Halep, who will turn 33 later this year, stated multiple times that a four-year ban would effectively end her career. 

Last fall, Halep’s coach at the time Patrick Mouratoglou said publicly that the positive test was caused by a contaminated collagen supplement that his staff had encouraged her to take. 

“There was no way to know it, but I feel responsible for what happened because it’s my team team basically who brought her this collagen,” he said. 

Halep’s appeal took place in Lausanne, Switzerland from Feb. 7-9. Though the panel determined Halep “did bear some level of fault or negligence” for using the supplement, it did not rise to the level to justify a multi-year ban. 

Halep’s positive test occurred after her first-round loss to qualifier Daria Snigur at the 2022 US Open. Two weeks before that, Halep won her biggest title of the season at the Canadian Open.

Last December, Halep told a media outlet in her native Romania that she was no longer working with Mouratoglou and that her “trust is broken a little bit.”

Halep has won 24 career WTA titles and earned more than $40 million in prize money, reaching the No. 1 ranking in 2017 and 2019.