The 31-year-old former Wimbledon and French Open champion has been provisionally suspended from October 2022 after testing positive for the banned blood stimulant roxadustat at the US Open last year . Halep strongly denied knowingly taking the banned substance and said she had evidence showing that small amounts of the anemia drug had entered her system from an authorized supplement that had been contaminated. Halep said she sent evidence of the contamination to the International Tennis Federation in December and hoped her case would be heard by an independent tribunal in February, but the hearing was postponed and a new date in March had also been postponed. Last week, Halep was charged with yet another tennis anti-doping program violation and again asked to be tried by an independent tribunal.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Halep said that the ITIA, while publicly declaring that it is committed to dealing with her “in an empathetic, effective and timely manner”, was at the same time asking the court to delay its audience for the third time. “I am once again extremely shocked and disappointed by the attitude of the ITIA,” she added. “ITIA says one thing publicly and does another in private. I repeatedly requested my hearing and the ITIA repeatedly sought to delay it.”ITIA, an independent body created by international tennis governing bodies to oversee integrity issues such as doping and corruption, did not immediately respond to an out-of-hours request for comment from Reuters. She previously said the process was underway, in accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code. “When is this going to stop? I ask the question one more time,” Halep said. “I have the right to a speedy hearing. Doing so is against my rights.”
