"I honestly in my heart believe her" - Serena Williams's ex-coach sides with Simona Halep amid 4-year doping ban
Rennae Stubbs, a former tennis player and the ex-coach of Serena Williams, has expressed her support for Simona Halep following a lengthy doping case that led to the Romanian being handed a four-year suspension. Stubbs believes Halep's team has to shoulder some of the blame for the whole episode.
Halep, who had been under provisional suspension since October 2022, has been handed the four-year ban due to violations of two anti-doping rules. She tested positive for the banned substance roxadustat at the 2022 US Open, and 51 of her blood samples revealed irregularities in her Athlete Biological Passport.
The two-time Grand Slam champion has vehemently denied any deliberate ingestion of the banned substance. She claims to have evidence that small amounts of the anemia medication had entered her system through a contaminated, licensed supplement.
Following this, Rennae Stubbs turned to X (formerly Twitter) to convey her support for Simona Halep while also calling out her team.
"This is hard to read. I honestly in my heart believe her & hear it in her words. I think her team has a lot to answer for in this scenario. As an athlete YOU are responsible but u rely HEAVILY on your teams to get it right too & on this occasion it seems some blame has to be made," Stubbs wrote.
Simona Halep intends to appeal the verdict
After receiving a four-year suspension from ITIA, Simona Halep has decided to continue to fight by appealing the decision. To defend her innocence, the Romanian released a statement on social media in which she clarified what transpired.
"I believe in a clean sport and in almost two decades as a professional tennis player, through hundreds of tournaments and two Grand Slam titles, I have taken 200 blood and urine tests to check for prohibited substances - all of which have been clean, until August 29, 2022," Simona Halep wrote on X.
"Ahead of the hard court season in 2022, upon recommendation from my trusted team and physiotherapist, I adjusted my nutritional supplements. None of the listed ingredients included any prohibited substances however we now know - and the tribunal agreed - one of them was contaminated with roxadustat. I was tested almost weekly after my initial positive test through early 2023, all of which came back negative," she added.
Simona Halep also intends to continue training while appealing the ruling to CAS and filing a lawsuit against the firm that supplied her with tainted supplements.
"I have never knowingly or intentionally used any prohibited substance. I refused to accept their decision of a four-year ban. While I am grateful to finally have an outcome following numerous unfounded delays and a feeling of living in purgatory for over a year, I am both shocked and disappointed by their decision," Halep continued.
"I am continuing to train and do everything in my power to clear my name of these false allegations and return to the court. I intend to appeal this decision to The Court of Arbitration for Sport and pursue all legal remedies against the supplement company in question," she added.
Simona Halep's most recent appearance at the WTA Tour came at the 2022 US Open. She faced Ukraine's Daria Snigur in the first round and lost the match 2-6, 6-0, 4-6.