Patrick Mouratoglou unsatisfied with Simona Halep’s doping debacle verdict after the Romanian tennis icon is relieved of severe charges

Simona Halep tested positive for roxadustat, a banned substance, during the 2022 US Open.

Patrick Mouratoglou unsatisfied with Simona Halep’s doping debacle verdict after the Romanian tennis icon is relieved of severe charges

Patrick Mouratoglou and Simona Halep (Via Imago)

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has finally been cleared of the doping charges and the four-year ban that was imposed upon her by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. She had tested positive for roxadustat during the 2022 US Open, which is an anti-anaemia drug that is used to boost the number of red blood cells in the body. As a result, she was banned for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA). 

From their investigation, the Court of Arbitration for Sports concluded that a contaminated keto MCT, which is a collagen supplement, is what led her to test positive. Thus, on the balance of probabilities, they concurred that the anti-doping rule violation charges that were imposed on her were not intentional. 

YouTube video

The CAS panel said that although Simona Halep bore some level of fault or negligence for her violation, as she should have been more careful while using the keto MCT supplement, there was no significant error on her part. Thus, her sentence was reduced from four years to nine months, which is a period that she has already served. 

FS Video

However, this has led to a lot of controversy because Simona Halep has already been unable to participate in any tournament for the past 18 months and time can not be won back. The ranking points and prize money that she missed out on during this period are not something that this decision makes up for. 

Ahmad Nassar, the former director of the Novak Djokovic-founded association PTPA, took to Twitter after this to talk about exactly these reasons that show how Simona Halep has been wronged in a systematic way. His tweet was reshared by Halep’s former coach Patrick Mouratoglou as well, who wrote, “The unfairness is incredible. Yes it has to change,” which shows that he is in line with Ahmad Nassar’s train of thought. 

Patrick Mouratoglou took full blame for Simona Halep’s doping suspension 

In November last year, Simona Halep’s former coach Patrick Mouratoglou said in a video that he posted on Instagram taking full blame for providing a tainted substance to Simona Halep, which ultimately led to her testing positive. He faced much criticism after this, as many believed that this admission should have come much earlier. 

Simona Halep
Simona Halep (via Imago)

Mouratoglou had said then (Source: Tennis.com):

We brought her collagen from a company. This collagen happened to be contaminated. There was no way to know it. But I feel responsible for what happened because it's my team—so me, basically—who brought her this collagen.
Patrick Mouratoglou said

Simona Halep, who won the 2018 French Open and the 2019 Wimbledon, is now free to play in any tournament as her ban has been lifted and it technically ended nine months ago. She said a while back that she had not spoken to Patrick Mouratoglou for many months. 

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