Halep was preparing for sleep when she read an email notifying her about her doping suspension.
Simona Halep has told quite a story as the two-time Grand Slam champion reveals it was 11 PM and she was preparing for sleep when she opened her email box to see if something arrived and that’s when she was left absolutely shocked to see an email from the ITIA notifying her about a failed doping test.
In 2022 October, the ITIA announced a provisional suspension for Halep after she reportedly tested positive for the banned substance Roxadustat. Moments after the ITIA publicly announced it, Halep issued a lengthy statement, in which she strongly denied ever knowingly taking a prohibited substance and the back-and-forth between the former world No. 1 and ITIA kept until this past March when she was cleared by the CAS to return to tennis.
While a lot has been shared about the Halep case while it was ongoing, now the 32-year-old has revealed another interesting detail. On the night she learned about her failed doping test, there wasn’t anything strange about it as the Romanian concluded her duties and was preparing to hit bed.
But instead of peacefully falling into sleep, Halep read an email that left her feeling like someone “hit the knife in my chest.” That’s when Halep instantly started feeling enormous levels of stress and anxiety.
In those moments of panic and intense stress, Halep tried to get in touch with Patrick Mouratoglou, who was her coach at the time.
Halep tells about ‘the day the sun disappeared’
“Yeah, the day the sun disappeared was when I read the email. It actually was the moon, because it was night when I went in bed, 11:00 pm I read e mails, because I’m not reading e mails nonstop, I’m not that kind of person, and I was shocked,” Halep said in an interview with Craig Gabriel for We Are Tennis.
“I actually called, I sent the message to Patrick (Mouratoglou), because he was the coach at that moment, and then the other person. I said, it’s not possible, because something like this didn’t happen. I asked them if it’s true, if I read it well, and they said yes. Then I was, like you said, the sun disappeared. But it was like the light from my head was, like, switched off. I was in a moment that I didn’t know what’s going on, so how is possible.
“Because I was always careful, I checked a hundred times before everything I took. It was just that I trusted the people I worked with, and I took the supplements. They were safe, in a way, because on the bottles, there was nothing banned. I asked a few times if they are checked and they are safe, and I received the answer that yes.
“It was a shock and emotionally was, like, you know, when you hit the knife in your chest and you have no breath anymore.”
Halep explains why returning to action in Miami was ‘a mistake’
After the CAS announced on March 5th that Halep’s doping ban was reduced from four years to nine months and that she was allowed to instantly return to tennis, the Miami Open organizers came through for the former world No. 1 and handed her a wildcard for their tournament.
And 14 days later, Halep’s comeback officially started on March 19th. In her first match in a year and a half, Halep actually looked pretty solid before Paula Badosa handed her a 1-6 6-4 6-3 loss.
Reflecting on that now, Halep was happy that she was able to play again and receive a warm welcome. But when it comes to how she felt physically afterward, she realized that playing there was a mistake.
“Honestly, it was a mistake to play Miami for my body, because in February when I had the hearing, I didn’t practice because I was exhausted, and I was in tension all the time. I said, I’m going to recover and I’m going to stay calm. And I didn’t do one hour of sport in February,” Halep explained.
“Then going straight to the match, physically was not great. But emotionally and mentally, to see all the love from people, I don’t know if all were honest, but I took only the positive from them. And to see that they wish me welcome back and stuff like this, it helped my mental, it helped myself to see that people really believed that I didn’t do it. So, this was important.”
Since Miami, Halep has been battling a knee injury and she has appeared in just one tournament since. A couple of days ago, Halep issued an update, in which she said she was taking a break from all activities until her knee gets back to being healthy again.
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