Former World No.1 tennis player Simona Halep has been cleared to return to competitive tennis after her four-year ban was reduced to nine months, thanks to her successful appeal to the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The Romanian athlete, a two-time Grand Slam champion, had been provisionally suspended from competition on October 7, 2022, following a positive test for the banned substance roxadustat during the 2022 US Open.

Halep vehemently denied intentionally ingesting the substance and attributed it to a contaminated nutritional supplement. In addition to the positive test, she was also charged with an anti-doping rule violation based on irregularities found in her Athlete Biological Passport, which monitors an individual athlete's blood profile through regular tests.

An Independent Tribunal found Halep guilty of anti-doping rule violations on September 22, 2023, and handed her a four-year ban. However, the tennis player appealed this decision to the CAS, the highest tribunal for global sport, and underwent a hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland last month.

The CAS partially upheld Halep's appeal by ruling that she had "no significant fault or negligence" in her initial positive test. The tribunal determined that she had established, "on the balance of probabilities," that the roxadustat entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement she had used prior to August 29, 2022, the day of the test.

Regarding the charge related to her Athlete Biological Passport, the CAS stated that it was "not comfortably satisfied" that a violation of the Tennis-Anti Doping Program had occurred and dismissed the charge.

In its statement, the CAS panel deemed that while Halep bore some level of fault or negligence for her violations due to not exercising sufficient care when using the Keto MCT supplement, she did not bear significant fault or negligence overall.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) responded to the CAS ruling by expressing support for the decision and welcoming Halep's immediate return to competitive play. The WTA emphasized its commitment to maintaining the integrity of the sport and creating a clean and fair sporting environment.

Halep, now 32 years old, has not competed in any tennis tournaments since her first-round exit from the 2022 US Open. With her ban reduced to nine months, she can now look forward to resuming her professional career sooner than expected.