Simona Halep asks the International Tennis Federation to make a decision in her case, in the first interview given after being accused of doping. She says she has evidence that one of her food supplements was contaminated with a banned substance.
Romanian Simona Halep, former world number 1 in women’s tennis, suspended since October last year after she tested positive for roxadustat, a banned substance, explained in an interview granted on Thursday to the Tennis Majors platform that she was the victim of a “contamination among her food supplements,” reports AFP.
Several experts, mandated by the 31-year-old player, “determined that these traces were the result of a contamination, a contamination of one of my food supplements, which explains the very small amount that was detected in my body,” Halep said.
“I have never knowingly consumed the smallest prohibited product,” Halep said when asked if she had taken roxadustat, a molecule that stimulates the production of red blood cells and is generally used to treat anemia related to kidney disease.
I have been provisionally suspended for 8 months even though I have sent all the evidence regarding my contamination to the ITF last December. I don’t ask for any special treatment. I just ask to be able to get judged by the Tribunal. I feel it is unfair and I am asking: how long is it going to last?
Read the interview here.