Simona Halep ACCUSES the ITF for killing her reputation and hampering her mental health by denying her the right to be judged
Simona Halep expresses her frustration regarding the third delay of her Anti-Doping charges since the October, last year.
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Simona Halep( Credits: Eurosport)
Simona Halep faced another Anti-Doping charge from the ITIA(International Tennis Integrity Agency) after her Athlete Biological Passport ( ABP) was detected with irregularities. While waiting for the fair trial, Halep’s case has been facing constant delays since last year’s October. The 31-year-old took to Twitter to voice her discontentment with the ITIA for the third postponement of her case.
The former Wimbledon champion has been off-court since last year’s US Open after testing positive for the banned Roxadustat drug. While already dealing with her partial suspension, Halep faced another charge from the ITIA. The agency claimed that Halep’s athlete biological passport (ABP) has been detected with some irregularities after the assessment from the independent expert panel. The suspicious pattern change resulted in the violation of the rules and regulations.
After back-to-back charges on the Romanian player, she has been constantly denied the opportunity to present her case. As her hearing faced a third delay, Halep couldn’t hide her disappointment with the actions of ITIA.
The 31-year-old accused the organization of disrespecting the rules of ITF regarding the provision of timely hearings of the cases. Halep said that the constant postponement has cost her missing the majors and losing her points and ranking. She further added that the consequences of the allegations on her reputation and mental health cannot be described.
On the other hand, the World Anti-doping Code (WADC) 2021 provides athletes with a fair chance of hearing. Under section 8.1 Fair Hearings, it states that “For any Person who is asserted to have committed an anti-doping rule violation, the Anti-Doping Organization with responsibility for Results Management shall provide, at a minimum, a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a fair, impartial and Operationally Independent hearing panel in compliance with the WADA International
Standard for Results Management.”
If anybody is unavailable or fails to provide the chance of a fair trial, the athlete shall have a right to appeal to the CAS( Court For Arbitration Of Sport).
Patrick Mouratoglou extends his support to Simona Halep
Simona Halep has faced back-to-back delays to her Anti-Doping charges. With constant disappointment from the ITIA, the 31-year-old has been placing her appeals against the false charges. Earlier, Patrick Mouratoglou also voiced his discontentment and stated that the ongoing persecution of Halep is not tolerable.
The Romanian player faced the second charge after her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) was detected with irregularities. Since being on a partial suspension for eight months, Halep has accused ITIA of false allegations and constant delay of her hearings. She has demanded to be provided with a fair opportunity to clear her name from the charges.
Mouratoglou, Halep’s coach, expressed his viewpoint on the case. The French coach said that while being an advocate for clean sport, he is shocked at how the Romanian has been treated even after providing the necessary shreds of evidence. Mouratoglou asked the agency to stop the harassment and conduct a timely hearing for the player.
“I am extremely shocked by the way this case has been conducted. I thought that the ITIA would pursue the goal to establish the truth, but they clearly try to prove her guilty even though she has been able to show multiple evidence of her innocence since December 2022,” he said in a statement.
Mouratoglou is also the former coach of Serena Williams. He has also mentored Holger Rune for a period of six months, since October last year.
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Tanushree Verma
(52 Articles Published)