Simona Halep wants the court to award her $10 million lawsuit against the company she believes is to blame for the doping ban

Tennis star Simona Halep continues her fight to clear her name as the two-time Grand Slam champion is now suing Canadian company Quantum Nutrition which produced a supplement that she believes is to blame for her doping ban from tennis, via Reuters.

In 2022 October, the entire tennis world was left shocked after the ITIA announced that Halep was being provisionally suspended after testing positive for anti-anaemia drug Roxadustat. In the announcement, it was said that a doping test Halep had during the 2022 US Open came back positive for a banned substance.

Now, Halep is suing Quantum Nutrition and seeking $10 million in damages as she claims that the company failed to disclose on the label that the supplement she used was contaminated with Roxadustat. In her lawsuit, Halep alleges that by failing to disclose on the label that the supplement was contaminated with Roxadustat, her career and reputation was harmed.

Roxadustat is a drug usually used to treat people diagnosed with anaemia but it is a prohibited substance in the sports world because it increases haemoglobin and the production of red cells. By using Roxadustat, an athlete could improve his endurance.

Halep filed her lawsuit in a New York state court in Manhattan, a report from Reuters says.

Just days after the 2023 US Open, the ITIA confirmed a four-year doping ban for Halep. Mouratoglou, who was working with Halep at the time the Romanian failed a doping test, was publicly voicing his support for the former world No. 1 during the entire process but revealed something for the first time only after she received a four-year ban.

In a video uploaded on his Instagram in early November, coach Mouratoglou admitted that his team gave Halep the supplement that turned out to be contaminated with a banned substance. When revealing that, Mouratoglou also claimed his team was unaware of the supplement being contaminated with a banned substance and described the entire situation as "very unfair" for Halep and everyone involved.

“I feel responsible for what happened because it’s my team, so me, who brought her this collagen,” Mouratoglou said in a video uploaded on his Instagram in November.

After Halep's hearing was concluded on Friday, Halep briefly spoke with the media, insisting that she was "very confident the truth will out to light."

That same day, the CAS also issued a statement. Usually, it takes the CAS a month or a few months to reach a verdict in such cases.

For 32-year-old Halep, this is likely the final chapter in her battle to clear her name and have her doping ban removed.

If Halep loses her appeal in the CAS, her four-year doping will stand and she won't be eligible to return to tennis until 2026 October. But Halep will be 35 in 2026 October and she indicated already that she would not return to tennis again if her doping ban stood.