Simona Halep’s appeal will be heard by the CAS in Lausanne

Former women’s tennis number one Simona Halep entered the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne on Wednesday to appeal her four-year doping ban.

Simona Halep plans to attend in person when the hearing will be held behind closed doors within three days.

“It is not possible to give a time frame for when the final arbitral award will be made”, said the court in Lausanne.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep hopes the ban imposed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency last September, which runs until October 2026, will be overturned.

Simona Halep tested positive for a banned substance at the 2022 US Open, but the case has since been complicated as investigators found suspected irregularities in her biological passport, which is meant to track blood values taken over several years. The Romanian tennis player has hired some of the best sports lawyers at the court in Lausanne, Switzerland, including American Howard Jacobs, who often represents top athletes involved in doping.

Simona Halep became No 1 in the WTA rankings in 2017. She won Wimbledon in 2019, defeating 23-time Slam champion Serena Williams in the final, a year after winning the French Open.