Andy Roddick hit out at Simona Halep's former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, and his involvement in the doping rigmarole.
Halpe was infamously banned by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for up to four years after testing positive for the prohibited blood doping agent Roxadustat, which was found during random in-competition testing at the 2022 US Open.
The Romanian star was also charged with a second count related to inconsistencies in her athlete's biological passport. Halep was placed under a provisional suspension in October 2022 and had to wait for an entire year for investigations and a full verdict to come to light.
It was the worst possible news she could have imagined, and although Patrick Mouratogolou has stated that he felt responsible for the whole ordeal that landed Halep in hot water, he has lacked empathy and concern as far as Roddick assessed the situation.
During an episode of "Served With Andy Roddick," the former US Open champion did not pull any punches when talking about the French coach, as he believes Halep has been made a scapegoat in the current limelight.
"Yeah, he's kind of, and we're talking about Patrick Mouratoglou, where she basically flipped her whole team and he was kind of in control, brought in his people, but it stinks because she's going to end up being potentially the poster child of a conversation."
The American explained that it should have been Mouratoglou "taking all the bullets" in this situation and fielding every question. The 53-year-old did not formally issue any apologetic messages publicly.
"I‘m not sure what the punishment is, and I understand the way that the rules are written; we’re responsible. But it also bothers me that once there wasn’t an immediate, I’m out front, not just a video, But I’ll take your question."
"Like if I’d have done that, if I’d have been a part of giving someone something and them trusting me with it. I’d definitely been out there trying to take as many bullets as possible for that person, right? Like saying I did this. I gave it to her. It’s my fault."
As Halep awaits a verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) following her appeal earlier this month, Mouratoglou is now working with Holger Rune in his second stint as a coach, which has surprised Roddick, who compared his self-promotional tactics to American rapper Puff Daddy.
"It's like, well, you know, this guy who comes in is great at self promotion. His website, I went on it the other day and it's like 18 different photo shoots. It's like a prepackaged situation. I say it's like Puff Daddy, who used to like, jump into every music video in the 90s. Now, that's like him and player boxes."
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