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The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne has announced on its official website that it will hear Romanian tennis player Simona Halep in the period 7-9 February in her case against the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA).
Simona Halep appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne on 24 October against her four-year suspension for doping.
According to the Lausanne court, Halep is asking for the ITIA decision to be annulled and her sanction ''to be reduced."
CAS arbitration proceedings have started, says the court, adding that it is not possible to indicate a time period for the duration of the process and the issuing of the decision. The decision of the CAS panel will be final and binding, except for the right of the parties to appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal within 30 days, the Court of Arbitration for Sport also points out.
Simona Halep has been suspended for four years for doping, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on 12 September.
The ITIA said an independent tribunal had suspended the former world leader for two separate Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) violations.
The first rule violation in the case of Simona Halep (32), a double Grand Slam champion (Roland Garros 2018, Wimbledon 2019), is related to the identification of the banned substance roxadustat the US Open in 2022, following an in-competition doping test, and the second is related to irregularities in her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP).
The court accepted Simona Halep's argument that she had taken contaminated dietary supplements, but determined that the volume ingested by the player could not have resulted in the concentration of roxadustate identified in the positive sample.
The biological passport charge was also upheld, with the tribunal arguing that there was no reason to question the unanimous "strong opinion" of the three independent experts with the Athlete Passport Management Unit (APMU) that "probably doping" was the explanation for the irregularities in the athlete's biological passport.
Halep had been provisionally suspended in October 2022, and her period of ineligibility is considered from 7 October 2022 until 6 October 2026.
Halep reacted immediately after the decision was announced, saying she was "shocked and disappointed," underscoring that she believed in clean sport and that in 2022 before season opening she had adjusted the nutrition supplements, which did not include among the listed ingredients any of the forbidden substances.
Halep maintained that two of ITIA's experts changed their opinions about her biological passport after they found out the samples were hers.
Halep has since announced that she will appeal against the suspension handed down by the independent tribunal and thanked everyone for their support.
