 Welcome back to Tennis Talk, my name's Cam Williams and Simona Halep has been provisionally suspended from playing tennis and attending tennis events due to a banned substance that was found in samples during the US Open, which was in August of this year. Let's go over read of the statement that we have from the ITIA who have come out with a statement talking about this suspension. So this is from the International Tennis Integrity Agency. They say, the ITIA has confirmed that Simona Halep, a 31-year-old Romanian tennis player, has been provisionally suspended under Article 7.12.1 of the 2022 Tennis Anti-Doping Program, TADP. The ITIA sent the player a pre-charge notice of an anti-doping rule violation on the 7th of October in 2022 under Article 2.1 of the program. The presence of a prohibited substance in the player's sample and or Article 2.2 use of a prohibited substance without a valid TUE. Halep, who has a WTA ranking of 9, provided a sample whilst competing at the US Open in August 2022. The sample was split into A and B samples and the subsequent analysis found that the A sample contained FG4592 roxodustat, which is a prohibited substance listed in the 2022 World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited list. Adverse analytical findings for non-specific substances carry a mandatory provisional suspension. They go on to say, the player exercised their right to request that the B sample was analysed, which confirmed the finding in the A sample. So it means that both samples came back positive. While provisionally suspended, the player is ineligible to compete in or attend any sanctioned tennis events organised by the governing bodies of the sport. The ITIA is the delegated third party under the World Anti-Doping Code of the International Tennis Federation, the International Governing Body for the Sport of Tennis and Signatory of the Code. The ITIA is responsible for the management and administration of anti-doping across professional tennis in accordance with the 2022 TADP. Now Halib's come out and given a statement as well saying, Today begins the hardest match of my life, a fight for the truth. I have been notified that I have tested positive for a substance called roxodustat in an extremely low quantity, which came as the biggest shock of my life. Throughout my whole career, the idea of cheating never even crossed my mind once, as it is totally against all the values I have been educated with. Facing such an unfair situation, I feel completely confused and betrayed. I will fight until the end to prove that I never knowingly took any prohibited substance and I have faith that sooner or later, the truth will come out. It's not about the titles or the money, it's about honour and the love I have developed with the game of tennis over the last 25 years. Simone. So there you have it, that is all the information we have at the moment. This is still a developing story, there's still other parties involved that we need to hear from. We have to hear from Patrick Moritoglu, her coach of the time, a solo coach right now, even though she's not on tour. But there was a couple of key things that Halep said in her statement, betrayed. Betrayed by who? That's what the question is, I think that's what she's trying to find out. But unfortunately for someone like Halep and any athlete who gets found with a banned substance, it's going to come with a suspension. Even if you didn't know that it was banned or you didn't know what you were taking, it's still going to come with some sort of ban. We don't know for how long, so that's what we'll keep you up to date with, but it's a developing story. But as far as we know now, Halep had a banned substance in her samples during the US Open and she is out for as long as we know. But let me know down in the comments below, what are your views on this issue? How do you feel about this? Do you feel sad? Do you feel angry? Let's try and keep the blame game away from this because we still don't know the whole story yet. All we know is that Simone Halep has taken the fall for this and we don't know whether she knew or not. She said she doesn't know, we'll keep you up to date with that. But Simone Halep will not be playing tennis for the near future because of a banned substance.