Simona Halep provisionally suspended for doping

Two-time grand slam champion Simona Halep failed a doping test at the US Open, the International Tennis Integrity Agency has announced.

The world number nine tested positive for the anti-anaemia drug Roxadustat in New York and has been provisionally suspended.

Halep, who won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon the following year, is the highest-profile tennis player to fail a drugs test since Maria Sharapova six years ago.

Halep suffered a shock loss to Daria Snigur in the first round of the US Open, and brought her season to an end last month following nasal surgery.

In a statement on her social media channels, Halep wrote: "Today begins the hardest match of my life: a fight for the truth.

"I have been notified that I have tested positive for a substance called Roxadustat in an extremely low quantity, which came as the biggest shock of my life."