Simona Halep has insisted she didn’t “knowingly” take performance-enhancing drugs, as she waits for a doping hearing seven months since being provisionally suspended.
The former world number one tested positive for banned substance roxadustat after she provided a sample at last year’s US Open.
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Halep has not played since and is yet to have a hearing about the case.
“Knowingly, I have not taken any banned substance,” the Romanian star advised tennismajors.com in an interview revealed Thursday.
“I’m a giant supporter of unpolluted sports activities and have at all times been in opposition to doping.
“I had no clue initially about the place this substance got here from.”
Halep, who claims experts found she had accidentally taken a contaminated supplement, said the International Tennis Federation cancelled a planned tribunal in February to do additional testing before postponing another hearing scheduled for last month.
“The next step is a hearing at the end of May, the 28th, but it is very fragile because the ITF said that they might cancel it as well,” Halep stated.
“If they do this, it’s going to be virtually eight months since I’ve been provisionally suspended for the primary time and I imagine that it’s not honest to spend eight months with out even being judged by the tribunal.
“It’s been seven months since I’ve been initially suspended though I’ve had all of the proof since December. I’m not asking for particular therapy. I simply ask to be judged. How for much longer is that this going to take?”
Halep said after her positive test last October that she would “fight until the end” to clear her identify.
“A participant that’s provisionally suspended is entitled to get an expedited listening to,” she said Thursday.
“Everything takes so long. I asked the ITF to lift my sanction to be able to play but they also refused it.”
Halep had climbed again into the world’s prime 10 earlier than she was suspended having dropped out of the highest 20 in 2020 following harm issues.
But the two-time Grand Slam champion is ready to tumble farther from her present mark of twenty sixth as she waits to discover out when she will return.
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“I really need to play once more as a result of I really like this sport and I need to play for the massive titles once more,” Halep said.
“I have worked all my life for this. At this age (31), it’s really tough to lose days, weeks, and months. You are scared about the injuries.
“When you don’t have official matches, it is more risky. When time passes like this, it is harder to come back.”
Roxadustat is a drug that stimulates the manufacturing of crimson blood cells and is used within the therapy of sufferers with kidney issues.
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