Halep's doping ban appeal begins in top sports court.

The world's top court began hearing former Wimbledon and French Open champion Simona Halep's appeal against a doping suspension that could end her career.

The 32-year-old Romanian arrived on Wednesday at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne for three days of proceedings, hoping to have her provisional suspension lifted.

Halep has been provisionally suspended since October 2022 after testing positive for roxadustat, a banned drug that stimulates red blood cell production, at the U.S. Open that year.

Tennis anti-doping officials also charged Halep with another doping offense last year, citing irregularities in her athlete biological passport (ABP), a method that monitors various blood parameters over time to detect potential doping.

Halep has vigorously denied the allegations.

The former world number one blamed her positive test at the US Open on contaminated licensed supplements. She has accused the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) of charging her with an ABP violation after a group of experts reviewing her profile discovered her identity.

An independent tribunal accepted Halep's claim that she had taken a contaminated supplement, but determined that the amount she ingested could not have resulted in the roxadustat concentration found in her positive sample.

According to CAS, Halep will not make any statements until the proceedings are concluded. The court said it was unclear when a decision would be made.
Halep told Euronews in December that if the court dismisses her appeal, she may be forced to retire.

"It's catastrophic if it's going to be four years," she said. "I don't know how I will handle it. Probably it will be the end of my career."

SportsLigue