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Chair of Romania's National Sports Agency (ANS) Elisabeta Lipa said on Monday that she is firmly convinced that tennis player Simona Halep is innocent in the doping case in which she was suspended for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency.
"If I knew what chances Simona Halep are standing at TAS, I would tell you, but God and those who judge her know what verdict they will issue. I can say that I would not like to be in her shoes, because it is not easy psychologically to go through something like this, especially when you are innocent. I am firmly convinced that she is innocent, because Simona could not have tested positive with such amateurism. But unfortunately, the athlete leaves themselves entirely in the hands of their team and when a situation like Simona's arises, the athlete alone is accountable, which is not fair," said Lipa, a few days after Halep was heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, told Agerpres.
Halep was heard in Lausanne February 7-9, and a verdict will be delivered on her appeal in the coming weeks or months.
The Romanian's career came to a halt on October 7, 2022, the start date of her provisional suspension after testing positive for a banned product at the 2022 US Open. It was Roxadustat, a molecule that stimulates red blood cell production and is classified as EPO (erythropoietin) in World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) regulations.
Last spring, Halep was charged with a new crime, this time involving irregularities in her biological passport data, a long-term monitoring tool for high-level athletes.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on September 12, 2023, that Halep got a four-year suspension for doping. Her ineligibility counts from October 7, 2022, to October 6, 2026. Halep challenged the sentence with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne on October 24.
