Former world No.1 Simona Halep has accused the International Tennis Integrity Agency of looking for to additional delay her impartial tribunal doping listening to, saying she is being denied her proper to be heard.
The 31-year-old former Wimbledon and French Open champion has been provisionally suspended since October 2022 after testing optimistic for banned blood-booster roxadustat ultimately 12 months’s US Open.
Halep has strongly denied knowingly taking the banned substance and has stated she has proof to indicate that small quantities of the anaemia drug entered her system from a licensed complement that was contaminated.
The Romanian has stated she despatched proof concerning the contamination to the International Tennis Federation in December and hoped her case can be heard by an impartial tribunal in February. However, that was postponed and a brand new date in March was additionally put again.
Last week Halep was charged with an extra and separate breach of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme and requested once more to be judged by an impartial tribunal.
In a press release posted on Twitter, Halep stated that whereas the ITIA was publicly stating it was dedicated to partaking her in an “empathetic, efficient and timely manner”, they had been on the similar time requesting the tribunal delay her listening to for a 3rd time.
“I am once again extremely shocked and disappointed by the ITIA’s attitude,” she stated.
“The ITIA publicly states one thing while privately doing another. I have repeatedly asked for my hearing and the ITIA has repeatedly sought to delay it.”
The impartial ITIA, established by the game’s worldwide governing our bodies to supervise integrity issues equivalent to doping and corruption, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
It has beforehand stated the method was “ongoing” according to the World Anti-Doping Code.
“When is it going to stop? I ask the question once again,” Halep stated. “I am entitled to a quick hearing. Acting this way is contrary to my rights.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
