Former world number 1 Simona Halep has appealed her four-year doping ban from tennis.
The 32-year-old Romanian star was banned by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for ‘intentional’ doping violations, but she has now appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) asking for the disputed decision to stand . to be set aside and that her sanction be reduced.
Halep tested positive for the banned substance roxadustat in August 2022 and was subsequently provisionally suspended in October last year.
The 2019 Wimbledon winner was later accused of irregularities in her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) and last month it was announced that Halep had been banned for four years.
A statement read: “The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has registered the appeal filed by the Romanian tennis player, Ms Simona Halep (the Athlete), against the decision of the International Tennis Integrity Agency Tribunal of 22 September 2023 ( the Disputed Decision), which found that she had committed violations of the anti-doping rules and was punished with a period of ineligibility of four years starting from October 7, 2022, and the disqualification of all results achieved in competitions that took place during the period August 29 2022 to October 7, 2022, including loss of medals, titles, ranking points and prize money.
“In her appeal to the CAS, the athlete requests that the contested decision be annulled and her sanction reduced.
“The CAS arbitration proceedings have commenced. In accordance with the Code of Sports-related Arbitration (the CAS Code), the arbitration rules governing CAS proceedings, the parties will exchange written submissions and the panel of arbitrators hearing the case will be will decide, composed. .
“Once constituted, the panel will provide procedural directions for the next stage of the proceedings, including the holding of a hearing.
“Following the hearing, the panel will deliberate and issue an arbitral award, setting out its decision and the grounds for it.
“At this time it is not possible to indicate a time frame for the issuance of the decision.
“The decision of the CAS Panel will be final and binding, except for the right of the parties to appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal within 30 days on limited grounds.”
Halep won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open in 2018, before following it up with more major success at Wimbledon the following year.