The two-time grand slam champion Simona Halep has tested positive in a doping test at the US Open as announced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency. The world No 9 tested positive for an anti-anaemia drug Roxadustat in New York and hence has been provisionally suspended from pro tennis.


Halep won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019 and has been the top tennis player to fail a drug test since Maria Sharapova six years ago. The Romanian suffered a shock loss to Daria Snigur in the first round of the US Open and ended her season to an end last month after undergoing nasal surgery.


ITIA confirmed that the 31-year-old tennis player was provisionally suspended under Article 7.12.1 of the 2022 Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP). Sample A provided by Halep contained FG-4592 (Roxadustat), which is a prohibited substance on the 2022 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List. ITIA further added that the findings for non-specified substances lead to mandatory provisional suspension.


Simona Halep was in shock when she found out that her test came out to be positive. She released a statement on Twitter and expressed that she feels ‘confused and betrayed’ by the result of her test and said that she will fight to prove her innocence. 


The statement said, “I have been notified that I have tested positive for a substance called Roxadustat in an extremely low quantity, which came as the biggest shock of my life. Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values I have been educated with.”


“Facing such an unfair situation, I feel completely confused and betrayed. I will fight until the end to prove that I never knowingly took any prohibited substance and I have faith that, sooner or later, the truth will come out. It’s not about the titles or money. It’s about honour, and the love story I have developed with the game of tennis over the last 25 years.”