Poisonous Caroline Wozniacki vs Simona Halep doping war of words has no winners

Kevin Palmer
Caroline Wozniakci and Simona Halep in a war of words
Caroline Wozniakci and Simona Halep during a match

Simona Halep’s return to the WTA Tour has been one of the big talking points in the opening days of the Miami Open, yet feisty comments served up by old rival Caroline Wozniacki have sparked a high-profile spat.

Halep made a quick return to top-level action after the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced her doping ban from four years to nine months two weeks ago.

The two-time former grand-slam champion tested positive for the blood-boosting drug Roxadustat at the US Open in 2022 and was handed the long suspension last September.

However, CAS accepted Halep’s explanation that she had unwittingly ingested the substance in a contaminated supplement, with the ruling coming 17 months after she was first provisionally suspended.

There has been a lot of support for the Romanian, who was defeated by Paula Badosa in her first match in Florida on Tuesday, but Wozniacki took a different view when speaking to reporters after a 6-1 6-4 win over Clara Burel.

“I’ve always liked Simona,” said Wozniacki, also a former world number one. “We’ve always had a good relationship.

“If someone has tested positive for doping, I understand why a tournament wants a big star in the tournament, but it’s my personal belief, and it’s not a knock on anyone, that I don’t think people should be awarded wild cards afterwards.

“If you want to come back, and it’s been a mistake, I understand, you should work your way up from the bottom.

“Simona’s situation has obviously dragged on for a long time. She got her suspension reduced. It wasn’t a clearance, it was a reduced sentence.

“I just hope for a clean sport. That’s all I want. I want to have good role models for the young generation. It’s a sport that has a lot of money in it, a lot of competitiveness, a lot of competitors. I want a fair fight.”

READ MORE: Simona Halep snaps back at Caroline Wozniacki over wildcard comments – ‘I’m not a cheater’

Halep was less than impressed by Wozniacki’s comments, responding: “Why did she say that?

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t cheat. I didn’t dope. Thank you to the tournament for giving me the wild card and have the possibility to play in such a big tournament. It was great to be back.

“Only one person being negative about me is not that important because I have hundreds of people who are giving me love, so I will take that.”

They were spikey comments from two of the highest-profile players in the women’s game and, in truth, there are no winners in this unfortunate story.

Wozniacki is right to suggest all athletes have to take responsibility for what they consume, yet Halep is also right to suggest she won her case to prove the doping ban handed down to her was unjust.

If the supplement given to her by coach Patrick Mouratoglou and his coaching team was contaminated with a small amount of a substance that should not have been there, the positive drug test that followed was an unfortunate inevitability.

This issue in this case is whether you support Halep’s argument that she was a victim of a miscarriage of justice and Wozniacki may well suggest her point was made on a wider issue.

Her suggestion that players returning from doping bans should not be handed wild cards would probably be supported by Halep if the player in question was proven to have taken the banned substance knowingly.

As Halep’s appeal against her ban suggested her ‘crime’ was accidental, the former Wimbledon champion has a right to suggest she should not be described as a returning ‘drug cheat’.

This may be a story Wozniacki should have avoided, but the tennis world will now be hoping she is drawn to play against Halep in an upcoming tournament as that would be a box office event.