Euronews caught up with former world number one tennis star Simona Halep, as she awaits the findings from the Court of Arbitration for Sport over a doping scandal which she admits could spell the end of her illustrious career.
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00:00 Simona Halep has climbed to the top of world tennis winning two Grand Slam
00:04 titles along the way but now she faces the biggest battle of her life after
00:09 having been found guilty of taking performance-enhancing drugs.
00:15 It's been quite a year for you, a year out of the game. Describe to me if you
00:22 can what's your state of mind right now? Well it's been actually more than one
00:27 year already and every day it felt like very painful, very emotional, hurtful
00:33 because I know I didn't do anything wrong and I know I'm clean so it was a
00:38 shock when I received the letter that my urine test, only the urine test, came out
00:44 positive with actually an extremely low quantity of substance, banned substance.
00:49 I've been always against doping and you know I've been loud as well about this
00:56 so didn't even cross my mind in my whole life to do something like this so it was
01:02 a shock. I struggled with the emotional part because it's been very heavy on my
01:08 shoulders and seeing this so much public it was really affected my my mental
01:14 health for sure. You've received an enormous amount of support online, not
01:20 surprisingly because you're one of the world's most popular sports stars but
01:25 also a lot of detractors as well. Have you reacted to that? Well the support has
01:31 been amazing. The fans were supporting me unconditional which means a lot, means
01:36 huge to see the people even if I face the worst moment in my life as an athlete
01:42 I know I'm clean. I received tons of messages, good messages and the biggest
01:49 thing is that I never faced a person who tells me something negative so all of
01:54 them were positive and this gave me the strength to keep fighting every day to
01:59 clear my name and to show that I didn't do anything wrong. The players also which
02:05 are opponents they also showed their support and I really appreciate it
02:10 because it means a lot. We are fighting on court and when you are in the worst
02:14 situation they are there and they support you. Also the legends, I had such
02:20 a big support from from legends in tennis and they were also publicly
02:24 spoken about me and this means a lot. They were supporting me full and it's
02:29 it's great, it's huge, everything helps me to stay strong in these difficult times
02:36 and to fight to clear my name. We've had also the International Tennis
02:42 Integration Agency say that you know three different panels of experts have
02:46 said that you intentionally took this performance-enhancing drug. What's
02:51 going to be your defense? Well yeah they said that but it's very clear that it
02:57 was a contamination. Three days before the positive urine test I was negative
03:02 blood and urine so I've been told at the beginning that it's a very it's
03:06 extremely low quantity of this substance, banned substance and in those three days
03:11 I could not have doped. It was not my intention and never has been the
03:17 intention to to do something wrong or something disrespectful to this sport
03:22 because I have respected everything and I dedicated my life. My principles are
03:27 not like this so I didn't think to cheat in tennis. The two things that the
03:34 contamination I think it's very strong for me and the second one the blood I
03:39 had many many tests and all of them were negative so they never found anything
03:45 wrong in my in my blood so with these two things I feel confident going and
03:51 facing tests. Do you trust the process though? Yeah I think it's way too long to
03:55 wait for an athlete, professional athlete. I accepted I had nothing to do against
03:59 this and now I'm looking forward in February and finally I will have the
04:03 final decision. Some of the criticisms that have been leveled against you and
04:08 some of those have also come against your team as well. Patrick Morotoglu
04:13 perhaps the most high-profile tennis coach in the world. He's come out now in
04:20 the last month and said he's admitted responsibility saying yes our team got
04:24 it wrong. You did have this contaminated collagen. What's the relationship like
04:28 between you and him now? It's true that he went out. I wish he could have done
04:32 that a little bit earlier. I have stopped working with with the Academy since a
04:38 while already. I'm just you know when I found myself in this situation it was
04:45 difficult to manage because I have always trusted in my teams, previous
04:50 teams and everybody that I work with because I felt like trusting you have a
04:55 better chance to perform at your maximum and I always been open to learn from
05:00 people that's why you hire people because you need information, you need
05:04 to be better. So I always trusted this and my trust is broken a little bit
05:09 right now and in the future I don't know how it's gonna be if I can trust again
05:15 and probably I have to learn because this is my principle in life. If you hire
05:20 somebody and you work with that person you have to trust. Sure and when's the
05:24 last time you two spoke? Not very soon like a few months ago. If the Court of
05:31 Arbitration does the decision goes against you will this effectively be the
05:35 end of your career? I think so yeah because four years it's gonna be a lot
05:41 for my age at least and for an athlete that has done 25 years every day this
05:47 thing and dedicate the life for tennis and for sport I don't know how
05:54 it's gonna be but it's catastrophic if it's gonna be four years and I don't
06:00 know how I will handle it probably is gonna be end of career yes and for
06:05 something that I didn't do and that is not my fault it's even more catastrophic.
06:10 Well you remain a national hero in your native Romania and beyond for sure you
06:17 know lots of people are going to be watching this interview young people
06:20 are going to be watching this interview what message would you have for them?
06:23 Well for the kids the only thing I can say is that they have to dream big I
06:30 think this is the most important thing to visualize yourself with the big
06:34 trophies of course you never know what is gonna happen in life but if you
06:39 dedicate yourself to sport if you are disciplined if you work hard and if you
06:45 have the passion the big passion for this sport I think you are able one day
06:50 to lift those trophies I did this and I can share this with them they have to
06:56 have the courage to trust their selves and to go forward I know some days are
07:01 difficult because you don't feel like going there you feel tired you feel
07:05 exhausted you feel depressed sometimes but if you push yourself and you go on
07:10 court in those days the step is huge and I wish them good luck and to trust in
07:16 their selves to have the confidence inside them.
07:19 Now before I let you go if we do look ahead into the future and the ruling
07:24 from the Court of Arbitration for sport is positive in your favor will you be
07:28 back here in Paris perhaps for the Olympics?
07:30 Of course this is my dream I know there are not big chances for this but I'm
07:36 dreaming of this because Paris is my dream city I'm one Roland Garros here
07:40 when I was junior so everything started very early and it will be amazing to be
07:46 back on court no matter what but I just want to be on court because there I
07:50 belong and I feel like I want to do it again.
07:54 Samona Hanab thank you for this interview.
07:56 Thank you too for listening and for talking to me.