Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep’s four-year ban for doping has been diminished to 9 months by the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport.
The choice means Romanian former world primary Halep, 32, can return to tennis instantly.
She feared her profession can be over if the unique choice was upheld.
Whereas her case was partially upheld, Cas dominated Halep “on the steadiness of possibilities” had not taken roxadustat deliberately.
Halep, who gained the 2018 French Open and Wimbledon in 2019, all the time maintained her innocence.
She examined optimistic for roxadustat – an anti-anaemia drug which stimulates the manufacturing of pink blood cells within the physique – after the US Open in 2022.
A separate cost got here in Might 2023 when irregularities had been additionally present in her athlete organic passport.
“Having rigorously thought of all of the proof put earlier than it, the Cas Panel decided that Ms Halep had established, on the steadiness of possibilities, that the roxadustat entered her physique by means of the consumption of a contaminated complement which she had used within the days shortly earlier than 29 August 2022,” it stated.
“The roxadustat, as detected in her pattern, got here from that contaminated product.
“Consequently, the CAS Panel decided that Ms Halep had additionally established, on the steadiness of possibilities, that her anti-doping rule violations weren’t intentional.
“Though the CAS Panel discovered that Ms Halep did bear some degree of fault or negligence for her violations, as she didn’t train enough care when utilizing the Keto MCT complement, it concluded that she bore no vital fault or negligence.”