Simona Halep gets more vocal backing as suspension continues

Simona Halep in action

Former coach Darren Cahill believes that Simona Halep should be allowed to return to the WTA Tour.

Cahill feels that it has been demonstrated that Halep was not at fault for the accidental ingestion of a banned substance.

Halep has vowed to prove her innocence and Cahill hopes that someone could come forward to help her clear her name.

“It is true that all athletes are responsible for every substance that enters their system, and Simona Halep will pay the penalty for this,” he said.

“Hopefully it won’t be too much longer, because the fault does not lie with her. She did nothing wrong.

“I hope that whether a company made a mistake, or a medical person, or a person from WTA, or someone from her team did not do their due diligence, someone puts their hand up and takes responsibility for this because one thing I do know is that Simona is not at fault here.

“There’s no way she’d ever cheat. She is a great woman and a great person. There’s no way she could have done the wrong thing,” he said.

Cahill offered his support to the Romanian, who he feels deserves to be back on the tour.

Halep has held to the line that she ingested the banned substance Roxadustat accidentally.

“Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating never even crossed my mind once, as it is against all the values I have been educated with. Facing such an unfair situation, I feel confused and betrayed,” Halep wrote in a statement on social media.

“I will fight until the end to prove that I never knowingly took any prohibited substance and I have faith that sooner or later, the truth will come out.”

Halep has reportedly supplied ethics officials with the supplement that she alleges was contaminated with the substance.

The Laboratoire Antidopage Français (LADF) declared a minimal presence of Roxadustat was present in a supplement but was not on the label.

However, WADA makes few concessions for athletes accidentally ingesting banned substances and Halep remains provisionally suspended.

After failing a doping test at the US Open, Halep was provisionally suspended late last year.

She has missed the start of the 2023 season, stalling what had been a promising comeback from the former world No 1.

Halep won her ninth WTA 1000 title in 2022 as she won the Canadian Open for the third time.

She ended her season soon after the US Open, opting to undergo nasal surgery in Romania.

It is unclear at this stage how long Halep could be sidelined for but she appears determined to return.

READ MORE: Simona Halep reportedly halfway towards clearing her name

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