Tennis boss backs former world number one in doping scandal
WTA chief executive Steve Simon has revealed that he has been in contact with two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep and backs the Romanian in her doping row.
Halep was provisionally suspended last month after her A and B samples from the US Open in August showed traces of the banned substance roxadustat, which is used to treat anemia.
The 31-year-old has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and as stated to the Associated Press in an interview this week, Simon said he believes that Halep “didn’t intentionally do something here.”
“That being said, I do believe very strongly in our anti-doping program, and I think it's a good one, and our players support it, too. And if you ask Simona, she supports it,” Simon added.
“I'm very confident that as we go through the process, the truth is going to come out, and we will deal with it accordingly. But I have a lot of sympathy for Simona, because I would never question her integrity.”
One other big topic of interest in women’s tennis is whether the WTA tour will return to China. Around a year ago, the WTA suspended all tournaments in the country after concerns arose about the safety of former Grand Slam doubles champion Peng Shuai.
Peng accused a Chinese ex-government official of sexual assault, but then disappeared from the public eye before re-emerging during the Beijing Winter Olympics in February and retracting her claims.
With Shenzhen supposed to hold the WTA’s finals until 2030, Simon expects a decision on whether China will receive the tour’s competitions in 2023 “no later than the end of the first quarter of next year.”
“We hope that that's where we're going to be. But, obviously, we have some issues to resolve.”
Those issues are not only coronavirus restrictions, which caused the WTA finals in Shenzen to be shelved in 2020 and 2021, but also Peng’s situation.
“We do need to resolve Peng. ... We’re comfortable that she’s safe, and we know she’s in Beijing, which is great. We want that. But we haven’t received the assurances that we want with respect to the investigation that we requested,” Simon revealed.
“What’s the real story? That’s all we’ve asked for. What’s the story? She obviously had great courage to come forward with what she said. The principles that are involved are right in line with what we stand for as an organization.
“And what we’ve asked for is an investigation to understand what occurred, what didn’t occur, and then address it appropriately,” he added.
The WTA Finals are currently being held in Fort Worth, Texas, and will run until November 7.
