Former top tennis player Halep can return to matches after sports court reduces ban

Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep was cleared for an immediate return to tennis on Tuesday after sports' highest court accepted she was not entirely at fault for her positive doping test.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland said its judges partially upheld Halep's appeal and reduced her four-year ban to just nine months. It was applied retroactively and expired last July.

The three judges decided Halep "established on the balance of probabilities" her positive test for a banned blood-boosting substance "entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement."

Halep was awarded Halep 20,000 Swiss francs ($22,650 US) by the judges toward her legal fees from the International Tennis Integrity Agency which prosecuted her and asked CAS for a six-year ban.

The former world No. 1 from Romania has not played since the 2022 U.S. Open, where she tested positive for the banned blood-booster roxadustat.

She had been serving a ban that would have exiled her from tennis until October 2026 after she turned 35.

WATCH | Halep claims 3rd career National Bank Open title in 2022:

The agency banned Halep last year after an investigation that was prolonged by detecting alleged irregularities in her biological passport, which can reveal abnormal blood values measured over several years.

The investigators also appealed to CAS and asked for a more severe ban of up to six years, said the court, whose judges dismissed the charge against Halep relating to her blood values.

She denied wrongdoing for the positive test and blamed contaminated nutritional supplements. Athletes need to prove the source of contamination to show they were not at fault for doping.

"Although the CAS panel found that Ms.