Former Wimbledon champion Simona Halep is set to make a comeback to tennis after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced her four-year ban to nine months. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) found Halep guilty of Anti-doping Rule Violations (ADRV) last September and imposed a four-year ban.
The CAS panel has unanimously determined that the four-year ban imposed by the ITF will be reduced to a nine-month ban, which just ended on 6 July 2023. Halep, in response to the ruling, expressed her eagerness to return to the tour with “renewed vigor and an invigorated spirit.”
Halep, a two-time Grand Slam champion, was provisionally suspended from competition on October 7, 2022, after testing positive for a banned substance at the 2022 US Open. She denied intentionally ingesting the substance and attributed it to a contaminated nutritional supplement.
After a hearing at CAS, it was ruled that she bore “no significant fault or negligence” for her initial positive test and had established that the supplement was contaminated. The CAS also dismissed an additional charge related to irregular findings in her Athlete Biological Passport.
The WTA has expressed support for CAS’s decision and welcomes Simona Halep’s immediate return to play. Halep has not competed since her first-round loss at the 2022 US Open and is looking forward to getting back on the court.
