Simona Halep has hit back at Caroline Wozniacki after the Dane suggested she should not have been awarded entry to the Miami Open following her doping ban, insisting she did not cheat.
Halep was beaten by Paula Badosa in the first round in Miami on Tuesday, having seen a four-year doping ban reduced to nine months following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS].
Despite CAS ruling that Halep unintentionally took banned substance Roxadustat due to a contaminated product, the decision to grant her a wildcard for the Miami Open was not universally welcomed.
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Asked about Halep’s presence at the tournament, Wozniacki said players returning from doping bans “should work their way from the bottom”.
“I have always wanted a clean sport, fair for everybody,” the 2018 Australian Open champion said.
“This is not directly at Simona, but if someone purposely cheats, if someone has tested positive for doping, I don’t think people should be awarded wildcards afterwards.”
Comeback Complete 👏@PAULABADOSA turns it around, rallying to defeat Halep in a fabulous R1 affair at the @MIAMIOPEN! PIC.TWITTER.COM/JVLWPXW3T7
— wta (@WTA) MARCH 19, 2024
Those comments were put to Halep in a press conference after her 1-6 6-4 6-3 defeat to Badosa, prompting an bemused response from the two-time grand slam winner.
“Why has she said that? I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t cheat, I didn’t dope,” Halep said.
“It’s better if we read the ruling from CAS that it was a contaminated supplement, it was not doping and I never had anything to do with doping. I’m not a cheater.
“Thank you to the tournament for giving me the wildcard and the opportunity to play, it was great to be back and just one person being negative about me is not important.
“I have hundreds of people giving me love, so I’ll take that. To see the crowd supporting me was so nice, it gave me a lot of energy, and the level of tennis was pretty good, unexpectedly I think.”
