ITF denies Simona Halep's claims are true

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The ITF responded to Simona Halep's claims, saying they "have no involvement" in the Romanian's doping case. On Thursday, Tennis Majors published an interview conducted with Halep, who has been suspended since October after testing positive for anti-anaemia drug Roxadustat.

In her interview, Halep said she provided the ITF evidence that she didn't deliberately take the banned substance but "they denied it." Also, Halep said she is "just asking to be judged" but her hearing has been delayed multiple times.

"The ITF has had no involvement in the management of this case, as the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme is managed and enforced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) on behalf of the ATP, WTA, ITF and Grand Slams," ITF Media said in a statement.

ITF statement regarding comments made by Simona Halep:

"The ITF has had no involvement in the management of this case, as the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme is managed and enforced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) on behalf of the ATP, WTA, ITF and Grand Slams”.

— ITF Media (@ITFMedia) April 28, 2023

What did Halep exactly say about the ITF?

"I have sent the evidence to the ITF and they denied it. I sent it in December when we first worked on it. The ITF denied it and we are still going through it.

Since the ITF denied it, the only chance this case has to be solved is to go to the tribunal to have a hearing about my case, and present all the evidence that my positive test was contaminated [Editor’s note: When Simona Halep mentions “the Tribunal” she asks to be judged by, she mentions the “independent panel” referred to in article 8.2 of the Tennis Anti Doping Rule published by the ITIA, in charge of the ITF antidoping program].

I sent all the results in December to the ITF to show that there was a contamination in my sample but they denied it. I was looking for it every day. I had a big hope that I could go to the tribunal to have a hearing and then I would know if I could play Indian Wells or not.

(A) hearing on February 28th didn’t happen because the ITF requested more time to do additional testing. Even if I was looking through that, the hearing was postponed to March 24th. The ITF requested that the hearing on March 24th should be cancelled.

I did not agree with that because as the rule says, a player that is provisionally suspended is entitled to get an expedited hearing. Everything takes so long. I asked the ITF to lift my sanction to be able to play but they also refused it," Halep said.

Also in her interview, Halep admitted she has been experiencing lots of stress recently and noted her goal is to play again.