Coach Patrick Mouratoglou has finally opened up on the four-year doping ban handed over to Simona Halep. The Romanian former World No.1 has been suspended after testing positive for banned blood-booster roxadustat at the US Open last year. Mouratoglou in a recent interview has taken full responsibility for the situation.
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Simona Halep’s four-year ban was confirmed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency in September this year. The Romanian has however professed innocence. She has appealed to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) to reduce the sentence.
Coach Patrick Mouratoglou sounded confident of the appeal as he spoke about it in a recent interview. “I feel confident for the future of Simona with her appeal to the CAS because it is an independent tribunal. We have been able to establish where the contamination comes from.”
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“I feel responsible for what happened to Simona Halep”
Mouratoglou further elaborated that the Roxadustat came into her system due to a collagen that he recommended to her. “We proposed to her to take the collagen and we brought her collagen from a company. This collagen happened to be contaminated.”
“There is no way to know it, but I feel responsible for what happened because it’s my team. So me basically me, who brought her this collagen,” added Mouratogolou.
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“We have done all possible tests to be able to establish that we are talking about a contamination. I’m very confident that this independent tribunal will recognise the fact that she never did doping. She is a victim and she has to come back to the court and be able to compete as soon as possible,” he futher added.
Simona Halep hired Moratoglou at the start of 2022. She won the Canada Open title under him in the month of August that year.
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