READ MORE:<\/strong> Rivals want 'strict and hard' Red Bull penalty\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Ronaldo dropped by Manu U after sulky walk-out\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The 31-year-old added that the news came as "the biggest shock of my life".\ufeff<\/p>\n "Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values I have been educated with.<\/p>\n "Facing such an unfair sanction, I feel completely confused and betrayed.<\/p>\n "I will fight until the end to prove that I never knowingly took any prohibited substance and I have faith that, sooner or later, the truth will come out.<\/p>\n "It's not about the titles or the money. It's about the honour, and the love story I have developed with the game of tennis over the last 25 years."\ufeff<\/p>\n Halep is a two-time singles grand slam champion who is currently No.9 in the WTA rankings. She won Roland-Garros in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019, beating 23-time singles major champion Serena Williams in the final.<\/p>\n Halep, a 31-year-old from Romania, recently announced she was taking the rest of this season off after having nose surgery to improve her breathing.<\/p>\n According to the EU\u2019s medicines agency, which approved Roxadustat last year, it stimulates the body to produce more of the natural hormone erythropoietin, or EPO, which has long been a doping product favoured by cyclists and distance runners.<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/Simona_Halep\/status\/1583453055307350022<\/a><\/p>\n During a provisional suspension, a tennis player is ineligible to compete in, or attend, any sanctioned events.<\/p>\n Under the World Anti-Doing Code, Halep faces a ban of up to four years for a positive test for a substance like Roxadustat.<\/p>\n Athletes can earn a reduction in their ban, likely to three years, if they quickly admit an offence and accept their sanction.<\/p>\n Tennis authorities will handle Halep\u2019s case and any ruling can be challenged by the World Anti-Doping Agency in an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former No.1-ranked tennis player Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency after failing a drug test during the US Open […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245985"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245987,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245985\/revisions\/245987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n