‘I Struggled Emotionally’ – Simona Halep Opens Up on the Worst Phase of Her Career During Doping Ban
Did The Doping Ban Unfairly Tarnish Simona Halep’s Legacy, Or Was It A Necessary Wake-Up Call?
Every sportsperson goes through ups and downs in their career. However, none might have seen the downside that Simona Halep saw a couple of years back. The former World Number 1 was banned for 4 years after testing positive for roxadustat, a banned drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells. Subsequently, she missed the entire 2023 season owing to the ban. However, earlier this year, Halep won her appeal, and her ban was reduced to 9 months, following which she became eligible to play on the tour. Despite Halep winning her case, the 9-month ban significantly affected her.
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Last week, the Romanian tennis star appeared in an interview with We Are Tennis by BNP Paribas. During the conversation, she was asked about what she went through during her doping ban, to which she replied, “The empty part is the break that I had for two years. It came with many negative things: mentally, exhaustion, body issues because I stayed so much. Now it’s really tough to recover the time I lost.”
While the ban did affect Simona Halep’s reputation as a top tennis star on the tour, what was even worse was that it had a significant effect on her mental health. She faced numerous emotional setbacks, which she pointed out in the interview. “I struggled emotionally, I struggled mentally, and I’m still struggling. I didn’t expect to be so difficult the comeback, and even if I won, it was everything cleared, still stays a little bit on my head,” the 32-year-old added.
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via Reuters
While Halep is cleared to play at the tournaments now, her fans are still waiting to see her in action. A few days back, she provided an update on her comeback.
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Simona Halep has upsetting news for fans
The 2-time Grand Slam champion has been away from the court for more than a year now. As a result, her fans have duly missed watching her in action. Additionally, she isn’t going to make a comeback anytime soon as she took to social media to share disappointing news with her fans.
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Taking to her official Instagram handle, Halep revealed, “For a few months now, I have been struggling with a knee injury. It’s an injury I have never had before and it has been a tough one to manage, with the pain persisting… I have decided to take the time needed to recover properly, rather than training and playing through pain.”
While Halep earlier targeted a comeback ahead of the US Open, she is now doubtful for the last Grand Slam tournament of the season, owing to her injuries. However, fans would hope that she recovers quickly and they can catch a glimpse of her in action at some point this year.
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Written By
Vatsal Shah
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Rallying Tennis Tales
Vatsal Shah, a Tennis Writer at EssentiallySports, combines sports management insight with two years of rich content creation experience. His journey at ES involves delving into the core of tennis, covering ATP/WTA tours, and contributing 2000+ articles. Notably, one of his pieces on Venus Williams garnered over 400k views.
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Edited By
Abhishek Rajan
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