2024-03-16 19:28:59
A big comeback is coming. The tournament in Miami will feature Simona Halep next week, whose sentence for doping was reduced from four years to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). She last played the US Open the year before last. Still, the Romanian tennis player says she feels like she never left the courts.
The former world number one has been out of action for a year and a half after testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat, which stimulates the production of hemoglobin and red blood cells. She got into her body by using a product from the Canadian company Quantum Nutrition, which the tennis player is now suing for lost profits for an amount exceeding 10 million dollars.
But that’s a job for the lawyers of the Romanian tennis player. The important thing is that at the beginning, sensational news arrived from Lausanne. The arbitration court reduced the two-time Grand Slam champion’s sentence from four years to nine months, so she can return to the professional circuit.
The management of the thousand-dollar business in Miami immediately rushed with a wild card, so the native of Konstanty packed her tennis bags, quickly recruited former Portuguese tennis player Joao Monteneiro as her coach and set off across the ocean.
“I missed the jet leg, I feel like I never left the circuit,” Halepova wrote on Instagram.
At the same time, however, she is cautious, she is not setting any lofty goals this season. “It’s too early to talk about the results, I’ve never had such a long break. We’ll see how it goes week by week and how I get in shape, I know it’s going to be hard,” said the thirty-two-year-old Romanian.
Simona Halep already in Miami, ready for her comeback to the WTA Tour post suspension.
She is being helped in the last couple of weeks by Portuguese coach João Monteiro, former ATP top 300. pic.twitter.com/hWGYubdiJj
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) March 12, 2024
For now, she also had to improvise regarding the coaching team she has with her. Before the doping case, her coach was Patrick Mouratoglou, who now coaches the Danish tennis player Holger Rune.
The former coach of Serena Williams was very relieved after Halep’s sentence was shortened, as he himself felt partly responsible for what happened. It was he who recommended a dietary supplement to the Romanian tennis player, namely collagen, which roxadustat contained.
“It was terrible when we didn’t know if he would ever play again. Moreover, at first we didn’t really know how it could happen,” the Frenchman told the Tennis Channel.
Despite the long break and the fact that Halepová will be among the older tennis players on the circuit, she believes in her former charge when she returns.
“I’m looking forward to her running out to the court again. It’s great to have her back and I think it’s great for women’s tennis as a whole,” added Mouratoglou.