Tennis – Sports manager: “I spoke to her last night…”
Romanian sports manager Cosmin Hodor talked with Simona Halep on the day the doping scandal regarding the former Wimbledon champion emerged. “That morning I talked to Simona, because I had something to do and she asked me to wait, that we would talk later.
Meanwhile, I found out what was going on and was shocked. She doesn’t deserve what’s going on around her right now,” said Cosmin Hodor for Digi Sport. “She was the last person who would have deserved such a thing!
I know her very well and I know how correct she is in everything regarding any regulation and any law. She does not force any green to yellow at the traffic lights! He told me I was going too fast when I was going 60 kilometers an hour, if the limit was 50.
“She got where she got through discipline. But that’s life, you make huge sacrifices for a career and a few split seconds can change everything. Everything that happens is painful and I think all the people are with her, they know how much she worked to become a great player.
I even spoke to her last night, she is determined to fight to the end. As devastated as she is by this news, she will fight to the end. I told her on the phone that it is important for her to accept with dignity everything that is happening now, to keep her lucidity and to keep fighting to the end.
She can prove her innocence, that’s the most important thing now. Right now, it’s not just about her career, it’s about her future. It really depends on what’s happening now. It’s hard to plan anything now, you don’t know when a decision will be made.”
Halep: “the biggest shock of my life.”
Simona Halep is sure she hasn’t consumed Roxadustat, the prohibited drug that was found in her body at US Open. “I have been notified that I have tested positive for a substance called Roxadustat 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 money. It’s about honour, and the love story I have developed with the game of tennis over the last 25 years,” Halep said in a statement.
