"I feel responsible for what happened" - Serena Williams' ex-coach Patrick Mouratoglou on Simona Halep's doping ban
Patrick Mouratoglou has said he feels responsible for the doping ban Simona Halep was recently handed by the ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency). At the same time, however, Mouratoglou expressed confidence that the ban will be revoked.
Halep tested positive for Roxadustat at the 2022 US Open and has been on the sidelines ever since. A few weeks ago, the Romanian was handed a four-year ban from the sport by the ITIA for 'intentional' breaches of the anti-doping program.
Halep, however, reiterated her innocence after the verdict, and has now appealed to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) to reduce the sentence.
In a recent video he posted on Instagram, Mouratoglou, who has previously worked with the likes of Serena Williams and Holger Rune, proclaimed that he is very confident about the appeal.
According to the Frenchman, Halep's team has been able to establish that the Roxadustat in her system was just from contamination, with the source being a collagen that he recommended to her.
For that very reason, Mouratoglou said he felt responsible for the unfortunate fate that has befallen Simona Halep. He described Halep as an innocent victim who never took part in intentional doping.
"I feel confident for the future of Simona Halep with her appeal to the CAS because it is an independent tribunal," he said. "We have been able to establish where the contamination comes from. So we proposed her to take collagen and we brought her collagen from a company."
"This collagen happened to be contaminated, there was no way to know it," he added. "But I feel responsible for what happened because it's my team. So it's me basically who brought her this collagen."
"We have done all possible tests to establish that we are talking about a contamination," Mouratoglou continued. "I'm very confident that this independent tribunal will recognize that she never did doping, she was a victim, and she has to come back to the court and compete as soon as possible."
Patrick Mouratoglou on the contamination present in Simona Halep's samples: "It opened my eyes on the fact that any athlete can become contaminated tomorrow"
Patrick Mouratoglou further lamented the possibility of contaminants in nutrition supplements similar to the ones in Simona Halep's case. He said the case has opened his eyes to the possibility that any athlete can become a victim now.
Given the long bans being enforced recently, Mouratoglou warned that athletes are at risk of having their entire careers and reputations ruined through no fault of their own.
"It opened my eyes on the fact that any athlete can become contaminated tomorrow because apparently this happens more and more," he said. "We're talking about extremely low levels of something. It has zero effect, but you happen to have in your system something that shouldn't be there."
"Your career is stopped for a period of time that is extremely long," he added. "It can affect your whole career, it affects your reputation for a very unfair reason because you have done nothing. The companies that you decide to go with for supplements, you have to be sure at 100% that this cannot happen."