Two-Time Major Champion Halep Has Ban Lifted, Cleared For Return
Romania’s Simona Halep has been cleared for a return to professional tennis, after the sport’s highest court accepted her appeal that she her positive doping test was not entirely her fault.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Halep’s appeal and reduced her original four-year ban to just nine months, which applied retroactively means the ban expired last July. The three judges for the Court for Arbitration for Sport said that the positive test for a banned blood-boosting substance “entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement.”
“Although the CAS panel found that Ms. Halep did bear some level of fault or negligence for her violations, as she did not exercise sufficient care when using the Keto MCT supplement, it concluded that she bore no significant fault or negligence,” the court said.
After a long investigation, one prolonged by alleged irregularities in her biological passport, concluded with a four-year ban for Halep, which she appealed during a three-day, closed-door meeting one month ago in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The original ban would have had her unable to compete on tour until October 2026, but the two-time major champion is now allowed to return immediately. The judges also awarded her $20,000 Swiss francs toward her legal fees she accrued from the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s prosecution of the ban.
“I cannot wait to return to the tour,” Halep said in a statement released by her lawyer, Howard Jacobs.
