![](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GettyImages-1242809208.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Former world No.1 tennis player Simona Halep has been slapped with a four-year ban after her anti-doping violation.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old Romanian star won Wimbledon in 2019 as well as the French Open five years ago, winning a total of 24 singles titles to date on the WTA Tour.<\/p>\n
But Halep tested positive for the prohibited anti-anaemia drug Roxadustat after last year\u2019s US Open, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency\u2019s banned list, while irregularities were found in her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP).<\/p>\n
That saw Halep provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) \u2013 although the two-time Grand Slam champion argued that a \u2018tainted supplement\u2019 was the reason behind why she failed the drugs test \u2013 and has always strongly insisted that she is innocent.<\/p>\n
The ITIA have decided to ban Halep until 2026, which would mark four years after she was provisionally suspended in 2022 but she has since confirmed her plans to appeal it.<\/p>\n
\u2018The tribunal accepted Halep\u2019s argument that they had taken a contaminated supplement,\u2019 the ITIA said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u2018But determined the volume the player ingested could not have resulted in the concentration of roxadustat found in the positive sample.\u202f<\/p>\n
\u2018I intend to appeal this decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and pursue all legal remedies against the supplement company in question.\u2019<\/p>\n