Simona Halep has announced that she will make her return to pro tennis at the Miami Open later this month, after more than 17 months out of the game.
I’m thrilled to let you all know that I will be making my return to the WTA Tour in two weeks at the Miami Open. Thank you to the tournament for giving me this opportunity, and I cannot wait to be back on court and competing. Simona Halep
“I’m thrilled to let you all know that I will be making my return to the WTA Tour in two weeks at the Miami Open,” the former World No 1 shared on Instagram on Thursday. “Thank you to the tournament for giving me this opportunity, and I cannot wait to be back on court and competing.”
The 32-year-old, a former Wimbledon and French Open champion, had her 4-year doping ban cut to 9 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne this week.
Halep was suspended in October 2022 after she tested positive for roxadustat, a banned drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells, at the US Open that year.
She was also charged with another doping offence last year due to irregularities in her athlete biological passport (ABP), a method designed to monitor different blood parameters over time to reveal potential doping.
Halep, a two-time Grand Slam champion, who vigorously denied the charges against her, has said that she would most likely be compelled to retire if the initial four-year ban had been upheld.
The Romanian has not played since the US Open in September 2022, and the ban was applied retroactively, allowing Halep to return to play immediately.
CAS determined Halep ‘established on the balance of probabilities’ her positive test for a banned substance ‘entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement’.
Halep had blamed contaminated nutritional supplements for the positive test.
“Although the CAS panel found that Ms. Halep did bear some level of fault or negligence for her violations, as she did not exercise sufficient care when using the Keto MCT supplement, it concluded that she bore no significant fault or negligence,” the court said.
Due to her lengthy absence from the sport, Halep currently is unranked and needs wild-cards for entry at WTA events.
She is a two-time semi-finalist in Miami, and last won a title at the 1000-level at the Canadian Open in August 2022.
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