Halep given four-year ban from tennis over doping offences
Tennis star Caroline Wozniacki has released a furious statement claiming that she had spoken about former world No.1 Simona Halep after she was handed a four-year suspension for doping. The quotes were taken from an unverified Instagram account and the author has since apologised for the error.
Earlier this month, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced that Halep was being suspended on two separate doping violations. The Romanian has insisted that she is innocent throughout the investigation and vowed to ‘clear her name’ over the coming months.
The suspension is still fresh on the minds of many and the legal battle is set to extend over a prolonged period, with several players – and former – speaking on the subject. Wozniacki was reported to have spoken out on the case, with quotes accredited to her printed in a Sports Illustrated article.
However, the quotes were actually fake and taken from an Instagram account that lacked verification, much to the annoyance of the 33-year-old. She wrote on X (Twitter): “It’s come to my attention that since deleted, quotes and opinions from me about Martina Hingis and the Halep doping case.
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“To be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR those quotes were NOT from me, but instead were taken from an account on Instagram that pretended to be me, and didn’t have the check mark.
This is very frustrating because it could have been easily avoided by either calling me, or checking the accounts authenticity on Instagram. I understand mistakes can happen, but I just want to be absolutely clear that these comments did NOT come from me. Have a great day!”
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The author, Jon Wertheim, amended his piece promptly and publicly apologised to Wozniacki, tweeting: “With full apologies to Caroline: …Editors’ note, Sept. 21, 11:20 a.m: Quotes attributed to Caroline Wozniacki which initially appeared in an earlier version of this story were found not to be authentic. SI has since learned she was not the source and regrets this error.
“To reiterate – The quotes attributed yesterday to Caroline Wozniacki came from either a hacked account or an impersonator account… The story has been corrected to reflect this.” The tennis star was not content with the apology though and hit back at claims the Instagram account sourcing the quotes was fake, writing back in response: “This was NOT a hacked account. You simply did not do your research to see it was a fake account with no verified check mark on it! Very simple to see on Instagram!”
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