MOSCOW, May 20. Coach of former world number one Simona Halep Frenchman Patrick Muratoglu said he was shocked at how the case against the Romanian tennis player about a possible violation of her anti-doping rules is being conducted.
On Friday, the Tennis Aggression Authority (ITIA) filed an additional charge against Halep related to violations in the athlete's biological passport.
“Extremely shocked at the way this case was handled. I thought ITIA would pursue the goal of establishing the truth, but they are clearly trying to prove Halep’s guilt, although since December 2022 she has been able to provide numerous evidence of her innocence. The last accusation is a pure interpretation of data from her biological passport. In other words, the ITIA did not find any banned substances in her blood, but simply states that her blood parameters are «suspicious». Well-known experts have determined that this statement is completely false and biased, and the blood counts are completely normal. That is why I ask ITIA stop this unthinkable harassment and stop constantly postponing the hearing that was supposed to take place in February and is now scheduled for the end of May,» Mouratoglu tweeted.
In October, Halep was suspended from competition due to an anti-doping rule violation. A Romanian woman tested positive for the banned drug Roxadustat during the US Open in August. The athlete said that she had never even thought about doping in her life. In early December, it became known that Halep had requested an emergency hearing before the ITIA. A hearing has been scheduled for May 28.
Halep is 31 years old. The athlete is the winner of 24 WTA tournaments in singles. The tennis player became the champion of Roland Garros (2018) and Wimbledon (2019). The Romanian became the third tennis player in history to earn more than $40 million in prize money.