Simona Halep will be coming back to tennis immediately as she was cleared of any wrongdoing at the Court of Arbitration of Sports.
The Romanian player was initially suspended from tennis after testing positive for a banned substance. That provisional suspension was then upheld, and the total ban was four years.
Considering her age, it basically meant the end of her career, but she never gave up and promised to contest the ban in the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS).
That whole process took some time, but a resolution came recently, with the Romanian's suspension reduced from four years to nine months. Those nine months are counted from the moment she was initially suspended, which was after the 2022 US Open.
It means that her suspension has been served as more than nine months have expired since then, and it also means that she'll be coming back to the sport shortly. She's remained active all this time, hoping for a positive resolution and a return to tennis, and she was right.
She was ultimately proven right, and she'll be coming back to the sport. Her first reaction mentioned her excitement about returning to the sport she loves.
"My faith in the process was tested by the scandalous accusations that were levelled against me, and by the seemingly unlimited resources that were aligned against me. I cannot wait to return to the tour."
We don't really know where Halep will play first, but it's not impossible for her to make a comeback at the Miami Open. A wild card could help her, but that's probably unlikely at the moment.
She could also skip the tournament and return at a smaller event to shape herself ahead of the clay season. She's always been a great clay player, so maybe that's the plan on her anticipated comeback.
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