Simona Halep provisionally suspended after testing positive for banned substance Halep will be out of action for a month while the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigates the positive sample.
Serbia’s top player will start her defence of her French Open and US Open championship with suspension. Halep, who was due to play on Saturday at Key Biscayne, is now facing two months on the sidelines as the WADA regulations state that the suspension must be at least two months.
The Serbian, who was competing in Miami only for the fourth time, tested positive before the tournament for a substance that was banned in 2010. She had been due to start with a 10-week ban, but was instead suspended for five months and fined €17,000.
That ban was reduced from two years as WADA had deemed her positive test as “inadvertent” and “likely benign”.
However, as a result of WADA’s investigation, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) announced on Friday that the four-times grand slam champion will now have to wait two months before resuming her career.
“Serbia’s Halep has been provisionally suspended until March 1, 2015, following a WADA retesting on Monday January 10, 2015. The player has been informed that in accordance with the WADA Code of Ethics, the result cannot be used or admitted as a basis for any disciplinary measures, including suspensions or bans,” the ITF said in a statement.
“The ITF and WADA regulations were established and revised to ensure a balance between fair competition and the values of integrity, transparency and respect for the integrity of tennis.”
A WADA spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that the former world number 2 would be out for a month.
“We have now received the WADA’s confirmatory result, which confirms that the results from the Anti-Doping Procedure on Monday 10th January 2015, were indeed in error,” he said.
“Due to the fact that this was a retrospective analysis that was done when the WADA Code of Ethics was not in place, and that
