A former WTA world No. 2 player believes that Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova were damaged by their doping cases and feels sad about what happened to Halep.
The Romanian unexpectedly retired after being thrashed in the opening round of the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca by Lucia Bronzetti. She announced it on-court without any hint it was coming before the tournament.
Halep had spent 2024 trying to return to a high level after being away from the WTA Tour for 18 months due to testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat. She was initially given a four-year suspension.
The two-time Grand Slam champion's ban was eventually reduced to nine months upon appeal, and she was allowed to immediately return in March last year, having already been suspended for more than the reduced penalty.
Although Halep made a promising start in a tight three-set battle against Paula Badosa in the opening round of the Miami Open, that was as good as her comeback got because of persistent injury problems during the following months.
Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam champion, has a similar story to Halep. She was banned for two years after testing positive for meldonium before having it reduced to 15 months upon appeal.
Writing on Telegram, former French Open and US Open champion Kuznetsova expressed disappointment that Halep never returned to her previous level after being banned and thinks their doping cases severely hampered her and Sharapova.
"It is very sad to read that Simona was never able to come back and decided to end her sports career. Of course, the doping case, unfortunately, damaged not only Maria Sharapova's career but also Simona Halep's."
“This is how it is in sports, such beautiful careers do not end on a high note. But nevertheless, Simona will forever remain a legendary athlete, and my congratulations to her.”
Although returning at Halep's age of 32 (now 33) was always going to be challenging, her retirement still caused a shock. Hopefully, she will be remembered for being a former world No. 1 than for her doping case.
Halep and Sharapova never being the same after getting suspended might make Jannik Sinner even more desperate not to receive a ban in his doping case that has been ongoing since March's Indian Wells Open.
Sinner tested positive twice for the prohibited substance clostebol at the Masters 1000 tournament, but it was only made public five months later when the International Tennis Integrity Agency cleared him of wrongdoing.
The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the appeal hearing will occur on April 16th and 17th, allowing the case to be resolved one way or the other.
Although Sinner's age of 23 would probably make returning from a ban easier for him, it might still harm and disrupt his career at a time when he is playing incredible tennis. The most recent example was winning a third Grand Slam at the 2025 Australian Open.
Iga Swiatek was undoubtedly relieved when the World Anti-Doping Agency decided not to appeal the one-month ban she received after melatonin tablets she purchased were contaminated with trimetazidine.