Simona Halep's complicated CAS hearing explained. And, what is Roxadustat?
Simona Halep has been fighting “the hardest match” of her life. Now, the former World No 1 and Wimbledon champion awaits the verdict of a three-person independent panel at the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) in Switzerland. If Halep loses, her career will be all but over, and tennis will have its biggest doping scandal since Maria Sharapova tested positive for meldonium in 2016.
Halep is appealing a four-year ban imposed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after testing positive for the banned substance Roxadustat at the 2022 US Open, while investigators also found irregularities in her biological passport. Halep denies wrongdoing and has blamed contaminated nutritional supplements for the findings. The charges brought before the CAS panel are serious, however.
Roxadustat is used for the treatment of anaemia, but in a sporting context is prohibited because of its capacity to boost the production of red blood cells in the body. Its effect is similar to EPO, the doping product that has plagued major endurance sports such as cycling’s Tour de France.
Halep, 32, has been provisionally suspended since news of her positive test for Roxadustat was announced in October 2022. She would be banned until October 2026 if she loses her appeal, by which point she would be 35. Halep says it would likely spell the end of her tennis career.
“Four years is going to be a lot for my age,” she said. “Catastrophic.”
Born in Constanta, Romania, Halep achieved hero status in her home country when she defeated Serena
