Simona Halepadmits she is feeling “huge stress” over the doping ban as the former world No 1 never thought she would find herself in such a situation. In October, the ITIA provisionally suspended Halep after she tested positive for anti-anaemia drug Roxadustat.

Halep has been adamant from Day 1 that she is innocent and she has been fighting ever since to clear her name. “I don’t really know how I am because the situation has been really hard. Emotionally, it’s heavy. The stress is huge because I never thought I would face something like this.

I have always been against doping, as I am a big supporter of clean sports. So at the beginning, I didn’t know how to handle it. Over time I just tried to stay calm and actually, I feel confident because I know I’m clean and I didn’t take anything knowingly that is banned.

I mean: a bad substance. It makes me feel a little bit better but I’m trying to handle it as much as possible,” Halep told Tennis Majors.

According to Halep, a group of experts found out how the banned substance got into her body and it was determined that she didn’t knowingly take the prohibited substance.

“After a lot of work, they found out that there was a contamination, a supplement contamination, and that’s why the quantity was so so low in my body. A contamination is when someone takes an authorised supplement, but the company who sells it makes a mistake, and there’s a very low quantity of substance that should not be in there.

The experts have worked a lot to find the reason of this contamination and they found out that the supplement was contaminated with a very low quantity of substance,” Halep said. Halep said she sent the evidence to ITF, who denied it.

Also, Halep confirmed her hearing had been already delayed multiple times. “It’s been seven months since I’ve been originally suspended even though I’ve had all the evidence since December. I’m not asking for special treatment. I just ask to be judged. How much longer is this going to take?” Halep asked.