(Photo: Tennis Canada)
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GUADALAJARA, Mexico – it was the mother of all Friday news dumps from the International Tennis Integrity Agency.
ITIA announced Friday that Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended after she received a notice Oct. 7 about a positive test for FG-4592 (known as Roxadustat), which is a prohibited substance.
She’s charged with violating either Article 2.1 (presence of a Prohibited Substance in a Player’s Sample) and/or Article 2.2 (Use of a Prohibited Substance without a valid therapeutic use exemption).
Halep, 31, reportedly test positive at the US Open in late August. The A sample was found to contain the Roxadustat. Halep then requested the B sample be analyzed, which confirmed the finding.
This carries a mandatory provisional suspension, although obviously it’s not the end of the matter.
Halep has already stated that she will fight it aggressively.
What is Roxadustat?
It’s a medication that is actually approved in several countries (China, Japan, Chile and South Korea and, in Aug. 2021, the European Union) for the treatment of anaemia associated with chronic kidney disease. At that same time, the American FDA declined to approve it.
Halep’s statement seems to indicate that it wasn’t a matter of her taking this medication and failing to file for a therapeutic use exemption in timely fashion (2.2), but indeed Article 2.1. Although the ITIA may be leaving the door open for her on that.
ALL HIF-type stabilizers have been banned by the World Anti-Doping Association, even if this one is legal in many places.
And this article from the US arm of it indicates that athletes have been using this medication to “increase their red blood cell count, which is a very effective doping technique that increases the delivery of oxygen to working muscles to increase endurance performance.”
It’s in a similar dynamic to the sythetic EPO which was rampant in cycling in the Lance Armstrong era. Indeed, a number of cyclists have tested positive for roxadustat.
Ended the season early due to nose surgery
Halep’s decision to end her season early and have nose surgery (and a nose job, too) may well be unrelated to this news.
She wrapped 2022 a little over a month ago, and then turned 31.
The first notice for the positive “A” sample, per the ITIA, was conveyed to her on Oct. 7. The “B” sample was subsequently tested.
And then the news came out that she was getting a divorce while she was still a newlywed.
It’s been a year.
While @Simona_Halep takes time to recover, she encouraged me to seek a new collaboration.
— Patrick Mouratoglou (@pmouratoglou) October 12, 2022
Today, I’m pleased to announce that I’m joining @holgerrune2003’s team.
I’m really excited to start working with Holger. We’ve had a special bond since the day we met, when he was just 13. pic.twitter.com/Iv5IBG2Wko
It also makes new coach Patrick Mouratoglou’s Tweet about going to work for Danish men’s player Holger Rune seem disingenuous, in retrospect.
He made that announcement on Oct. 12, five days after Halep would have received notice of the first positive finding.
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Do you think the World Tennis League event in December in Dubai will let Halep play?? She was pretty well announced a few weeks ago.
I hope she does, as I can’t believe she is guilty. If Richard can get out of a doping charge because of a wayward kiss, perhaps anything is possible.
I doubt they have any scruples about …anything, given the purpose for it, where the money comes from and where it is.