“There is no way Simona knowingly or willingly took a substance from the banned list. None. Zero. This is the message published in an Instagram statement by Darren Cahill, the former trainer of Simona Halep.
The 31-year-old French Open (2018) and Wimbledon (2019) champion, currently ranked 9th in the world, has been provisionally suspended for testing positive for Roxadustat, a drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells, at the last US Open in August, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Friday. Shortly before the US Open where she was eliminated in the first round, she had won the Canada Open in Toronto for the 3rd time, the 9th victory of her career in a WTA 1000 tournament. Also semi-finalist this summer at Wimbledon , the Romanian, trained by Frenchman Patrick Mouratoglou in his Academy in Sophia-Antipolis (Alpes-Maritimes), had returned to form after suffering injuries.
After being notified of her positive control on October 7, Halep requested the analysis of the B sample. He confirmed the verdict of the first analysis. The player said she would “fight to the end” to prove her innocence after suffering “the biggest shock of her life”. According to Cahill, her trainer for six years, the Romanian was always “extremely attentive to anything a doctor might prescribe for her (which was rare) and any supplements she used or was considering using”.
“Simona kept telling us to double check, triple check to make sure everything was legal, safe and allowed. If you are not sure, I do not take it, “he wrote, reporting the words of his protege whose integrity he considers “flawless”. “I stand by his side,” he concluded.