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Danielle Parhizkaran/USA TODAY Sports
On Tuesday, it was announced that two-time Grand Slam Champion Romanian tennis star, Simona Halep, would be cleared to play tennis once again after winning the anti-doping appeal which ruled she was not entirely at fault for her positive doping test of roxadustat.
The Court of Arbitration of Sport said its judges partially held Halep’s ban that started in July of 2023 in what was initially four years and reduced to nine months.
The three judges decided Halep "established on the balance of probabilities" her positive test for a banned blood-boosting substance "entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement."
In addition to Halep returning to the court, the judges awarded Halep $20,000 Swiss Francs ($22,650) toward her legal fees from the International Tennis Integrity Agency that prosecuted her and asked CAS for a six-year ban.
Halep stated her gratitude and appetite to return to the court: "I cannot wait to return to the tour,” the former Grand Slam Champion said in a statement released by her attorney, Howard Jacobs, who identifies she will file a lawsuit against the supplement maker.
Halep last played tennis in the 2022 US Open, the place where she tested positive for the banned substance roxadustat. This is a big win for tennis and Halep.
It is a big win for tennis because they’ll be getting back one of the most prominent and dominant players of her generation before her ban. It’s also great for Halep because if the ban was upheld for its full duration she would've missed the entirety of her prime as it wouldn’t have ended until October 2026 after she turned 35.
The agency banned Halep last year after an investigation that was prolonged by detecting alleged irregularities in her biological passport, which can reveal abnormal blood values measured over several years.
Investigators also appealed to CAS and asked for a more severe ban of up to six years, said the court, whose judges dismissed the charge against Halep relating to her blood values.
Halep denied wrongdoing and blamed contaminated nutritional supplements, which has to be proven to prove their innocence they were not at fault.
Halep won Wimbledon in 2019, beating perhaps the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, Serena Williams in doing so, as well as the 2018 French Open.