Grand Slam champ Halep wins doping case on appeal

Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep was cleared for an immediate return to tennis on Tuesday after sports’ highest court ruled she was not entirely at fault for a positive doping test. The Court of Arbitration for Sport partially upheld Halep’s appeal and reduced her four-year ban to nine months, applied retroactively. The three judges decided Halep “established on the balance of probabilities” her positive test for a banned blood-boosting substance “entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement.”

Judges also awarded Halep $22,650 toward her legal fees from the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which prosecuted her and asked CAS for a six-year ban. Halep has not played since the 2022 U.S. Open, where she tested positive for a banned blood booster. She had been serving a ban that would have exiled her until October 2026.

The agency banned Halep last year after an investigation that was prolonged by detecting alleged irregularities in her biological passport, which can reveal abnormal blood values measured over several years. The investigators also appealed to CAS and asked for a more severe ban of up to six years, said the court, whose judges dismissed the charge relating to her blood values. The former topranked Romanian denied wrongdoing for the positive test, blaming contaminated nutritional supplements.

“Although the CAS panel found that Ms. Halep did bear some level of fault or negligence ... as she did not exercise sufficient care when using the Keto MCT supplement, it concluded that she bore no significant fault or negligence,” the court said.

LAURENT GILLIERON/KEYSTONE VIA AP Simona Halep was banned by the International Tennis Integrity Agency when she tested positive for a banned blood booster at the 2022 U.S. Open. She appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which determined that she was not entirely at fault and reduced her ban to nine months.