Ion Țiriac went to Poland to discuss with WADA officials about the situation Simona Halep was in.
The businessman wanted to find out why Simona Halep’s doping case was treated differently from Jannik Sinner’s.
Ţiriac thus found out that there is a big difference between the two cases: While Simona Halep did not want to blame her team, Sinner did.
"I took the subject of Halep as an example with the WADA people. Why? They tell me that Halep is different from Sinner. Because Sinner said from the beginning that he has no idea what it's about. And, indeed, we consider that Sinner had in him a substance that was a minuscule amount, a drop of water, as they said, in an Olympic pool. That's the quantity in the Italian's body, a number with nine zeros discovered. So, zero.
We agree, up to this point, that he is not guilty. So, who is guilty? His team, then we considered that we should give him a smaller suspension, because of the team, they say. But, how can they know who is the one applying cream, giving him a massage? What is the difference compared to Halep? Well, they told me that Halep said from the beginning to leave her team alone, to talk to her. And here was the mistake with Halep.
When she got to the CAS, Halep said she didn't know where it came from and the CAS made an absolutely logical decision. Which WADA could have made earlier if they respected a law written in stone. An athlete is guilty if he is positive, regardless of whether someone forced him, violated him, he is guilty. But, how and why afterwards? Like before you declare him guilty? Sinner is innocent, he made a deal with WADA, but they say it's not us who made the decision, but we gave it to someone independent and it came back. That's their explanation," said Ion Țiriac, for ProSport.
After a long break, Simona could not return to the same level and was forced to retire from tennis.