Former world number one Simona Halep of Romania has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) said on Friday.
A shocked Halep said she would “fight until the end” to prove that she did not knowingly take a prohibited substance.
The two-time major winner, currently ranked ninth in the world, was tested during the US Open in New York and both her A and B samples confirmed the presence of the drug, the agency said.
“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,” it said in a statement.
Halep described the ban as the “biggest shock of my life”.
“Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values I have been educated with. Facing such an unfair situation, I feel completely confused and betrayed,” she wrote on Twitter.
“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.”
Roxadustat is a drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells and is used in the treatment of patients with kidney problems, the ITIA said.
Halep, 31, was ranked first in the world in women’s singles twice between 2017 and 2019, for a total of 64 weeks. She has won two Grand Slam singles titles: the 2018 French Open and the 2019 Wimbledon championship.
Halep, who lost in the first round of the US Open in late August, subsequently underwent nose surgery for functional and aesthetic reasons after suffering with breathing difficulties.
“I could never do it before because I never found the necessary three months for the recovery,” she said in a Twitter post alongside a photo of her bandaged nose.
“I felt like it was the right time to do it and also to do something for me as a person. That is why I also did the aesthetic part, that I wanted to do for a long time as I did not like my nose at all.
“I know many of you can understand me.”