Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended from tennis after testing positive for a banned substance.
The Romanian former world number one Simona Halep tested positive for roxadustat at the US Open in August.
Roxadustat increases the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells through the endogenous production of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO).
Halep, 31, said it came as the “biggest shock of her life”.
“Today begins the hardest match of my life: a fight for the truth,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values I have been educated with.
“Facing such an unfair situation, I feel completely confused and betrayed.”
Halep, who won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon the following year, said that she had tested positive for roxadustat “in an extremely low quantity”, adding she would “fight until the end”.
“It’s not about titles or the money,” she said. “It’s about honour, and the love story I have developed with the game of tennis over the last 25 years.”
Her full statement reads:
“Today begins the hardest match of my life; a fight for the truth. I have been notified that i have tested positive for a substance called Roxadustat in an extremely low quantity, which came as the biggest shock of my life.
Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values i have been educated with.
Facing such an unfair situation, i feel completely confused and betrayed.
I will fight until the end to prove that i never knowingly took any prohibited substance and i have faith that sooner or later, the truth will come out.
It’s not about the titles or the money. It’s about honour and the love story i have developed with the game of tennis over the last 25years,” she said.