The former Wimbledon and French Open champion says she will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after testing positive for a banned blood booster at the US Open last year. Halep had blamed a contaminated supplement for the presence of traces of the anemia drug roxadustat found in her system.
Halep says she adjusted her nutritional supplements ahead of last year’s hard court season on the recommendations of her “trusted team and physiotherapist.” The Romanian says she will “pursue all legal remedies against the supplement company in question” and will do everything possible to clear her name.
Responding to the controversy this week, Sakkari said she and other players were not happy about the intense anti-doping measures they are forced to undertake. The Greek World No.9 says the level of testing and constant fears about supplements most elite stars are taking make it “very stressful” to be a player on the professional circuit.
“One thing I can tell you for sure is the way they’re handling every situation with any player, any athlete, it’s just scary,” Sakkari said. “We’re going to get to a point where we’re not even going to be taking electrolytes.
“Thankfully, I haven’t been in that position. I never want to be. I’ve been very careful with everything that has to do with supplements. But I don’t know what the process is, how things are done behind closed doors.
“I don’t know who has a say. I have no idea… I would for sure improve the whereabouts app, that’s the anti-doping app. It doesn’t work well. It’s supposed to remind you every day of your time slot, and it doesn’t. They tried to improve it, but it’s not working very well.
“For us, we travel so much compared to other athletes. It’s just very stressful. I wake up almost every night to use the bathroom. If that’s close to my time slot, I’m just thinking ‘Do I go? Do I not go? Do I just wait if they come?’ It’s just very stressful
Nick Kyrgios hits oυt after Maria Sakkari commeпts
Kyrgios – whose levels of professionalism have often been called into question – replied to Sakkari’s concerns in a brutally dismissive manner. The Aussie star said that instead of complaining about the strict anti-doping measures in place at the elite level of the sport, his solution was for players to merely “stop taking shady” substances.
“Ehhhh not really lol,” Kyrgios posted on Twitter in response to Sakkari’s concerns. “I run on bananas and coke cola (sic) in 5-set battles. And my record in them speaks for itself.
“Maybe players should just stop taking shady sh*t. Look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and say yep, I did it right. Not hard.”
Kyrgios faced backlash for his comments online, before hitting back at one user by declaring: “I’d imagine if I was taking similar things to be banned for 4 years, I’d have about 5 slams. Potato.” Kyrios has been plagued by injuries that have ruled him out of every grand slam tournament in 2023, but he has vowed to return to the court in 2024.
