2-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep provisionally suspended

2-time Grand Slam Champion and former World No. 1 Simona Halep was provisionally suspended from tennis after failing a drug test during the US Open.

The Romanian Tennis player provided a sample in August that tested positive for a banned substance, Roxadustat, which is an anti-anaemia drug that stimulates RBC productions, the International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed.

In a social media post, Halep, who is currently ranked 9th, called the news of her positive test 'the biggest shock' of her life and added that she had tested positive for the drug in an 'extremely low quantity. 'Facing such an unfair situation, I feel completely confused and betrayed. I will fight until the end to prove that I never knowingly took any prohibited substance', she wrote in a note, which the 31-year-old posted on Twitter.

Last year, in September, she had announced that she was taking the rest of the season off after having nose surgery to improve her breathing.

Halep who won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in '19 is the 2nd high-profile player to fail a doping test after Maria Sharapova in 2016.