Simona Halep has fired back at comments made by Caroline Wozniacki, as the Danish player suggested she shouldn't have gotten a wild card for the 2024 Miami Open.
Halep's ban was reduced to one year by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which allowed her to return to the sport immediately. Her first event back was the Miami Open, where she was awarded a wild card after she was allowed to return to the sport.
Wozniacki didn't like that, as she said that players who were banned from the sport shouldn't get a wild card upon their return. For the Dane, a fairer approach would be for them to start from the bottom and work their way up simply, but Halep didn't like that phrasing.
She hit back at her colleague after her loss at the WTA 1000 event, saying she had been wrongly kept out of the sport because she hadn't done anything wrong.
"I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't cheat. I didn't dope. So it's better if we read the decision from CAS that it was a contaminated supplement, it wasn't doping. I never had something to do with doping. I never doped, so I'm not a cheater."
Halep's response came after she was directly asked about Wozniacki's previous statement, which was requested from the Dane also from the media during the press conference.
"Thank you to the tournament for giving me the wild card and have the possibility to play in such a big tournament. It was great to be back. Only one person being negative about me is not that important because I have hundreds of people that giving me love, so I will take that."
It's a tricky thing to judge because, essentially, CAS did rule in favor of Halep. She did not dope intentionally, so does she deserve further punishment after losing over a year of her career? What do you think? Tell us below.
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