PARIS (AFP) - The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has said that two-times major winner Simona Halep of Romania has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat.
Halep, ranked ninth in the world, was tested during the U.S. Open and both her A and B samples confirmed the presence of the drug.
“Simona Halep, a 31-year-old Romanian tennis player, has been provisionally suspended under Article 7.12.1 of the 2022 Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP),” the body said in a statement.
“The sample was split into A and B samples and the subsequent analysis found that the A sample contained FG-4592 (Roxadustat), which is a prohibited substance listed in the 2022 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List.”
Halep described the ban as the “biggest shock of her life”.