The doping case in which Simona Halep was involved finally provided a definitive verdict. It's just that, going by the subsequent reactions, it's clear that there won't be a consensus on how guilty “Simo” was in this whole story.
Simona Halep was behind bars for 18 months for a suspension of only 9 months
For the ardent supporters of the Romanian, she was clean from the first day when the news broke of her provisional suspension for doping. Neither the evidence that appeared along the way, nor the Sport Resolutions decision, with a 4-year suspension, changed the opinion of those who love Halep. And they are not few! On the other side, there are Simona's opponents. Which are “against her from birth“, as expressed, very inspired, the TVR commentator, Cristian Mîndru. Even for those in this category, things have not changed after the TAS decision. Halep's detractors know one thing well: “He was drugged, and now he escaped!“.
But if we leave the emotional factor aside, if we don't take into account our preferences and dislikes, the reality of this doping file is the following: the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, as the supreme sports court, gave the final and correct decision. More than that, Halep, and if she did anything wrong, she paid a hideously high price! Because her suspension was 9 months only on paper. In reality, she was on the hook for 18 months.
The problem is that, as many commentators in the world press have pointed out, the 9 extra months in which Halep stayed away from tennis is an anomaly. An injustice. It got here because the trial of the case proceeded at a snail's pace. The only person who paid for this situation was Simona Halep.
Although this anomaly has been talked about, no one has yet quantified what this loss means for “Simo”. Approximately, at least. That is why “Adevărul” set out to analyze this aspect. And unfortunately, the conclusions are dire!
The ranking is gone and is not coming back
In the first WTA ranking after the US Open 2022, the last tournament she played, Halep had 3,025 points. And he was ranked 9th in the world.
Today, when she is to return to the field at the Miami Open, Simona will start from scratch. Without the prospect of even recovering the points he had in July 2023, when, in theory, his 9-month suspension expired. The WTA stated for “Gazeta Sporturilor” that such a situation is not foreseen in the regulations. As a result, this injustice happening to Halep cannot be corrected and she will have to return to the circuit with zero points.
From here, several problems arise. Without a ranking, Constanta will depend, in the near future, on wild-cards (no – invitations) or on playing some matches in the qualifications to catch the table of the various tournaments. And anyway, once she's on the board, she's going to have some hellish runs, right from the early rounds. As seen now, in Miami. Because if he passes Badosa, he will immediately run into Sabalenka. Who is the second player in the world. Before, when she was ranked, Halep would start her journey with easier matches and meet elite opponents as she progressed in the competition.
Financial loss: $3 million
After we get past the issue of rankings, we come to the issue of financial gains. Of course, that chapter is secondary now, considering that “Simo” doesn't care about tomorrow anymore, having earned $40,203,437 in tournament prize money so far. With this total, the former WTA No. 1 is 3rd in the all-time money list, behind Serena ($94,816,730) and Venus ($42,406,778) Williams.
Even so, Simona was robbed of the chance to earn some serious money through her participation in the WTA circuit. If we count the money she collected, in the last five years, which included her weakest season (2021), but also her best (2018), we see that the total amount of 19,467,423 dollars entered the Romanian's account. Which means, on average, Halep collected $3,893,484 in prize money alone, across various WTA events. So, the 9 months of additional suspensions meant a loss of almost 3 million dollars for Simona.
Seeing these estimates, we can understand why Constanta sued the company producing supplements, asking for damages of 10 million dollars. Unfortunately for Halep, her chances of winning are slim. So, most likely, she will have to console herself with the victory at TAS.
Simona Halep's tournament earnings, 2018-2022
2018 – 7,409,564
2019 – 6,962,442
2020 – 1,937,890
2021 – 904,330
2022 – 2,253,197
*Amounts are expressed in dollars
