Serena Williams reacts to rival Simona Halep’s four-year doping suspension from tennis with cryptic tweet about 2019 Wimbledon final: ‘8 is a better number’

Serena Williams couldn’t miss the opportunity to comment on the suspension of her former tennis rival Simona Halep.

The Romanian former world number 1 was suspended for four years after testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat during the US Open last year.

Williams took to Twitter after the suspension was upheld, saying “8 is a better number.”

That likely refers to the 2019 Wimbledon women’s singles final, where Halep denied Williams an eighth title.

In addition to finding roxadustat, an anemia drug, in her blood, the International Tennis Integrity Agency also discovered irregularities in her blood passport system.

Halep, a two-time Grand Slam women’s champion, is banned from playing tennis for four years

Williams sent a cryptic tweet referencing Halep’s victory in the 2019 Wimbledon women’s final

Unless her appeal is successful, she won’t be able to compete again until 2026, when she’s 35.

Halep, who also won the 2018 French Open, was a respected and popular figure. She has maintained her innocence throughout the episode, which became public in October 2022 when the positive test was revealed from a urine sample at the US Open.

The player last night described herself as ‘shocked and disappointed’ and said she would take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

She described the presence of roxadustat as “at an extremely low level” and added that she had adjusted her supplementation regimen last year on the advice of her team.

But in announcing their ruling, the ITIA said: ‘The tribunal accepted Halep’s argument that she had ingested a contaminated supplement, but found that the volume ingested could not have resulted in the concentration of roxadustat found.

‘The charge against the ABP (biological passport) was also upheld, with the tribunal stating that it had no reason to doubt the unanimous ‘strong opinion’ of three independent experts that ‘probable doping’ was the explanation.’

Halep had a turbulent 2022. She parted ways with longtime manager Virginia Ruzici and hired Serena Williams’ former coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

After a first-round loss at the US Open, it emerged that she ended her season and – after less than a year of marriage – divorced Toni Iuruc, a billionaire businessman.

Investigation revealed that Halep had committed two doping violations

Halep released a statement insisting she had been “accidentally” exposed to roxadustat

Halep’s suspension runs from October 7, 2022 to October 6, 2026, but she can appeal the decision

A tribunal ruled that ‘probable doping’ was the cause of her irregular samples

Eugenie Bouchard, who has previously spoken out against doping players, also tweeted

Williams wasn’t the only one who appeared to comment on Halep’s ban. Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, a tennis player who often speaks out against those found guilty of doping, said: “I was told not to tweet today.”

Bouchard and Halep have met before in Grand Slam events, but they haven’t had the same significance as a final.

In 2014, Bouchard defeated her Romanian counterpart in straight sets of the Wimbledon semi-finals to reach her first and only Grand Slam final. She lost that to Petra Kvitova.

They met again in the second round of the 2018 Australian Open, where Halep got his revenge. Halep would advance to the final of that tournament, where she lost to Caroline Wozniacki.