Simona Halep provisionally suspended after testing positive for banned substance in training on day eight
London, July 12 (IANS) Wimbledon champion Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended from the sport for a year after testing positive for a banned substance following her warm-up on day eight of the WTA Championships at Wimbledon.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) issued the “final warning” to Halep for a second positive test on Sunday, following her win over Dominika Cibulkova, in which she used a banned substance.
Halep tested positive for the substance hydrochlorothiazide, which is banned in Switzerland and Italy, after missing practice on Sunday and Monday on her way to her doubles final with Cara Black on Monday.
The news comes as Halep’s coach Flavio Cordeiro admitted the 28-year-old Romanian is “inconsolable” following the news.
“With Simona it’s very much an emotional story and there are still days that she can’t get out of her mind the disappointment of the sport,” Cordeiro told the Romanian newspaper RISE. “I don’t think that she’s a very intelligent person who has lost a year of her career.”
Cordeiro said Halep also lost her career in the wake of the news by being told she could lose her place in the WTA 500-level tournament for which she was competing.
Cordeiro said Halep is devastated by the news, but expects her to bounce back.
“She is an incredible tennis player and a very good person,” he said. “A huge loss for the sport is that you lose a player during the year, and for two years you can’t say anything about her. There are moments at the end of the season [in the majors] when you