Simona Halep faces an extended agonising wait for her trial looking into allegations of doping, after the proposed date has been delayed yet again.
The two-time Grand Slam champion had been expecting the trial to already be underway before it was initially delayed. News has now broken from her father that the trial - rearranged for the 28th of this month - has been pushed back again to the 30th.
Halep was provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) in October last year after she tested positive for the anti-anaemia drug Roxadustat during the US Open a few months earlier.
The former World No. 1 has always vehemently protested her innocence, as have two of her former coaches in Darren Cahill and Patrick Mouratoglou.
Last December, Halep received a positive update from a Romanian judge serving with the Court of Arbitration for Sport when it found that Halep "ingested a contaminated food supplement", meaning the substance was not taken in large quantities, in isolation, or over a sustained period of time.
However, Halep's innocence in the eyes of sporting law and her hopes for competing professionally once again all rest on her ability to prove that ingesting she ingested the supplement without knowing Roxadustat was present. In other words, "the athlete must also prove the lack of guilt and negligence".
We still don’t know anything. We’re waiting just like you are. We don’t know what’s happening. The deadline was initially set for the 28th, but from what we understand, it was postponed to 30th. We are doing okay. When you’re innocent, you fight tooth and nail.
Simona Halep's father, Stere Halep, remains adamant that his daughter is innocent and that justice will eventually prevail, regardless of how long they have to wait for the truth to come out.
Whatever the case, it remains an excruciating wait for Simona Halep, who has remained off tour all season while this case hangs over her.
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