Simona Halep discusses her worst year ever in an exclusive interview, as well as her battle to be cleared of doping allegations and return to the top level of tennis.
The two-time Grand Slam champion hopes the Court of Arbitration for Sport will soon overturn the decision that has placed her on a four-year tennis ban, expiring in 2026.
She will have a hearing in February for her case after the International Tennis Integrity Agency discovered that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs on purpose.
Halep expressed her thoughts in a recent interview: “It’s very clear that it was a contamination. Three days before the positive urine test, I was negative in blood and urine. So I’ve been told at the beginning that it’s a very, very low quantity of this substance, a banned substance, and in those three days I could not have doped.”
She added: “It was not my intention and never has been the intention to do something wrong or something disrespectful to this sport, because I have respected everything and I dedicated my life. My principles are not like this, so I didn’t think to cheat in tennis.”
After a year of silence, her well-known coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, revealed last month that Halep’s contaminated substance was the result of his technical team. This added a twist to the story. She regrets it since it might be important for her to go back to court, but she is also very relieved about the information.
Halep gave her remarks about Mouratoglou and said: “And I’ve always been open to learning from people. That’s why you hire people: you need the information and you need to be better. So I always trusted this and my trust is broken a little bit right now. And in the future, I don’t know how it’s going to be if I can trust again. And probably I have to learn because this is my principle in life: if you hire somebody and you work with that person, you have to trust.”
This teaser for Simona Halep’s interview with Euronews Romania was just aired. The full interview can be seen at 23:30pm Romanian time tonight. I will share the full thing once it is released. pic.twitter.com/BmZboVcPQn
— Romanian Tennis (@WTARomania) December 15, 2023
Simona Halep in 2023
Ranked no.578, Halep played her last match on the 29th of August 2022 when she lost to world no.134 Daria Snigur 6-2 0-6 6-4 in the 1st round of the U.S. Open (draw).
This season Simona owns a compiled 39-11 win-loss record.
