BREAKING NEWS: Wimbledon’s 2019 champion Simona Halep fails a drugs test for blood-booster Roxadustat, with the world No 9 – and former No 1 – having tested positive at the US Open
Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended after she tested positive for a banned substance during this year’s US Open.
The Romanian world number nine’s sample was found to have contained the blood-booster Roxadustat.
Halep, a former Wimbledon champion, was beaten in the first round of the tournament in New York City by Daria Snigur of Ukraine.
The 31-year-old two-time Grand Slam champion is ineligible to compete pending the analysis of her ‘B’ sample.
The bombshell news was announced on Friday by the International Tennis Integrity Agency, which oversees anti-doping and other integrity issues for the sport.
In a statement, Halep said the prohibited substance had been found in ‘extremely low quantity’ and described the finding as the ‘biggest shock of my life’.
‘Today begins the hardest match of my life: a fight for the truth,’ Halep wrote on social media.
‘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.
More to follow
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