"Simona would never knowingly dope": Cirstea throws support behind Halep amid ongoing doping scandal

Simona Halep is still waiting to see what will happen with her tennis career as she awaits the hearings for her two open doping cases.

The Romanian has been out of tennis since last year's US Open due to a provisional ban after a doping test came up positive. She's yet to clear her name in that case waiting for a hearing on it and in the meantime she's been hit with a second allegation. This one comes after some irregularities in her biological passport were spotted making an already complicated situation even worse.

Some have speculated that this could mean the end for Halep however she maintained her innocence while calling this whole process unfair and comparing it to a witch hunt. Her hearing was delayed once more, prompting her to release another statement explaining her frustration with the process taking far too long while she awaits on the sidelines.

Being not the youngest anymore means that all of these months are very valuable to her but she can't play and her hearing keeps getting pushed back. Her compatriot and noted veteran Sorana Cirstea spoke out in favour of Halep explaining that she would never willingly dope:

“I don’t know if my opinion is needed but all I’m going to say is I don’t think Simona would ever knowingly dope. It’s not a good situation & I really hope she can solve it."

It's something many who know her have shared before including her former coach who said that she is very obsessive about checking whether the things she does take are okay.