Talk About Tennis 2.0

Remember Cahill hedged his statement. He said there was no way Simona had taken any PED KNOWINGLY. The possibility for a mistake was there.
About Simona. The idea that any tribunal would be partial against her is ridiculous; she is a beloved champion, and somebody in good stature with the tour. So the "they are after me" card has to be examined further.
I am still on her side. I say Cahill's word is an asset, but if she still took something by accident, the guidelines are clear.
I hope that will be the case and she can come back, if she feels so, after a shorter suspension.

Look like the media darlings that won multiple Slams have been "skirting around" the rules.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 7:21 pm The guys at ESPN L. America are saying that Halep has been hit with a further doping charge.
Not looking good for her.

It was never looking good for her. People want to be so damn optimistic about her case, but substitute her for a player in the top 50 that most don't care about and this wouldn't be the response. Also, remove likable Darren Cahill, a man that was not her coach anywhere near the period she tested positive and couldn't possibly know what she was putting into her body day in and day out, coming to her defense and that somehow being enough for most to determine, this must be mistake, and the response is also different. Case in point, Patrick has been just as forcefully defending her the entire time and no one puts forth that as proof of her innocence and instead blame him for the doping, positive he's the one who put the substance in her system, even though he has a tennis academy and oversees many tour players' coaching and Simona's the only one we know of testing positive in his group of players.

Reminder - the cycling community is the one that provided the most information about the drug that she tested positive for. This isn't mild doping and it being accidental the way she's claiming that it is is very tough to prove where this substance is concerned. And triggering that biological passport is particularly damning and likely means this is it. The tale she's been attempting to spin in the past several months is highly likely just that, a tale. Her PR has been excellent though because people stay defending her and making her out to be a victim. Watching people today realize maybe likability isn't the best test for determining if someone is positive of a doping charge has been interesting to say the least.

For those that don't remember about what the drug class is for the first offense and also more info on the biological passport.

These hairsplitting issues are getting too complicated..maybe we need to a world where either 'nothing is permitted' or 'everything is permitted' - the current rules benefit mostly lawyers and test labs ...

ti-amie wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 8:21 pm Very bad news for women's tennis. The drug is, in my non medical opinion, a way to blood dope without using Djokovic's not a hyperbaric machine.

Anomalies in her ABP just make it worse.

Now, unless somehow her mother cooked her favorite Romanian dish and somehow the mother's medication got mixed in the sauce her career is over.

Since they didn't take Sharapova's titles away from her after she admitted to doping for ten years despite all the rantings I'm seeing on that WTA fan site I don't see how they can take Halep's away.

Someone on Reddit mentioned Petr Korda keeping his Aussie Open title and how soon after winning he tested positive. I think the question is whether or not the rules have been changed since he was able to keep his title. I think Sharapova is a separate case since the drug she took wasn't on the banned list at the time of her titles.

JazzNU wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 11:49 pm

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 7:21 pm The guys at ESPN L. America are saying that Halep has been hit with a further doping charge.
Not looking good for her.

It was never looking good for her. People want to be so damn optimistic about her case, but substitute her for a player in the top 50 that most don't care about and this wouldn't be the response. Also, remove likable Darren Cahill, a man that was not her coach anywhere near the period she tested positive and couldn't possibly know what she was putting into her body day in and day out, coming to her defense and that somehow being enough for most to determine, this must be mistake, and the response is also different. Case in point, Patrick has been just as forcefully defending her the entire time and no one puts forth that as proof of her innocence and instead blame him for the doping, positive he's the one who put the substance in her system, even though he has a tennis academy and oversees many tour players' coaching and Simona's the only one we know of testing positive in his group of players.

Reminder - the cycling community is the one that provided the most information about the drug that she tested positive for. This isn't mild doping and it being accidental the way she's claiming that it is is very tough to prove where this substance is concerned. And triggering that biological passport is particularly damning and likely means this is it. The tale she's been attempting to spin in the past several months is highly likely just that, a tale. Her PR has been excellent though because people stay defending her and making her out to be a victim. Watching people today realize maybe likability isn't the best test for determining if someone is positive of a doping charge has been interesting to say the least.

I don't know if you visit the big WTA fansite but some of the responses over there have been off the hook.

As you say they're going after Patrick Mouratoglou because for reasons I've never understood he's hated by some. As for Cahill we don't really know what the time period is regarding the ABP (blood passport) but people are jumping to really wild conclusions. I think that at some point he will have to say something but he will probably wait until after the timeline of the ABP is released to the public. The ABP protocol was started in 2013 after the Lance Armstrong fiasco. When I first read about the drug involved I said here (I think) that the charge was serious and involved blood doping.

She's spinning conspiracy theories faster than TFG or Ghouliani in her defense. An independent tribunal of who? Family, those indebted one way or the other to her family, friends?

It doesn't look good for her at all.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Sat May 20, 2023 12:50 am
I don't know if you visit the big WTA fansite but some of the responses over there have been off the hook.

She's spinning conspiracy theories faster than TFG or Ghouliani in her defense. An independent tribunal of who? Family, those indebted one way or the other to her family, friends?

It doesn't look good for her at all.

No, not on it, not even sure I know it. I've been reading people's thoughts on Tennis Reddit more than anywhere else on this one since they can be more full fledged thoughts.

The conspiracies I've seen since the start against Patrick have been wild. They've been completely nonsensical.

And the independent tribunal is hilarious. She's also been acting like she got ahold of the US Open sample and that's what the people she hired tested. Girl stop. You've known all this was coming and were trying to turn the public in your favor even more so before this blow hit.

And yes exactly about the passport. They wanted another way to monitor because the cheaters are always a step ahead of them on the actual drugs but anomalies can jump out through the passport that aren't caught with the individual doping tests. No matter the accidental reasons she has been putting forth, people who know much more about the drug have said that "accidental" is incredibly unlikely to occur with this. I won't be surprised if she's hit with the customary blood doping ban.

You all are more informed than I am.
What about her claim that the sample was contaminated? I understand that you always have two samples, precisely because if one is tainted, the second assists in the process.
Is that a possibility?

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sat May 20, 2023 3:03 am You all are more informed than I am.
What about her claim that the sample was contaminated? I understand that you always have two samples, precisely because if one is tainted, the second assists in the process.
Is that a possibility?

Was it the sample that she asserts was contaminated, or was it the supplement she took?

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sat May 20, 2023 12:40 am

ti-amie wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 8:21 pm Very bad news for women's tennis. The drug is, in my non medical opinion, a way to blood dope without using Djokovic's not a hyperbaric machine.

Anomalies in her ABP just make it worse.

Now, unless somehow her mother cooked her favorite Romanian dish and somehow the mother's medication got mixed in the sauce her career is over.

Since they didn't take Sharapova's titles away from her after she admitted to doping for ten years despite all the rantings I'm seeing on that WTA fan site I don't see how they can take Halep's away.

Someone on Reddit mentioned Petr Korda keeping his Aussie Open title and how soon after winning he tested positive. I think the question is whether or not the rules have been changed since he was able to keep his title. I think Sharapova is a separate case since the drug she took wasn't on the banned list at the time of her titles.

And Sharapova never denied that she took it shortly after it was banned or that she had been using it for years.

Someone I never agree with made the point that Halep may have been pressing the "contamination" story and complaining about the delay and "harassment" because she knew the ABP results were coming. If she were cleared before the ABP results came in I don't know if they would've been able to continue gathering information on her from her blood samples.

3mlm wrote: ↑Sat May 20, 2023 8:55 am

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sat May 20, 2023 12:40 am
Someone on Reddit mentioned Petr Korda keeping his Aussie Open title and how soon after winning he tested positive. I think the question is whether or not the rules have been changed since he was able to keep his title. I think Sharapova is a separate case since the drug she took wasn't on the banned list at the time of her titles.

And Sharapova never denied that she took it shortly after it was banned or that she had been using it for years.

Yes, and also, since weren't talking about Maria, it should be mentioned here since it's been pointed out many times on social media that Halep was not exactly supportive of Sharapova when she tested positive for doping. To me, what she said wasn't all that bad, but it can't be denied that she was one of the ones on record speaking about her and it wasn't a, no big deal all is forgiven type of statement.

ti-amie wrote: ↑Sat May 20, 2023 4:40 pm Someone I never agree with made the point that Halep may have been pressing the "contamination" story and complaining about the delay and "harassment" because she knew the ABP results were coming. If she were cleared before the ABP results came in I don't know if they would've been able to continue gathering information on her from her blood samples.

Definitely agree that she knew this was coming out soon, she's ramped up her PR campaign in recent weeks and it just seems highly unlikely that it's a coincidence. Her appeal date was set and postponed twice I believe with the new date coming soon and it just is hard to believe she wasn't told a bit why there was a postponement or at the very least told why there typically are postponements and they decided on the slick campaign to try to gain public favor.

BUT, I don't think the timing matters on the second result. ITIA used clear legal terminology in their announcement of the second charge, it can stand on it's own, doesn't need to be tied to the first in any way.