Kim Clijsters: "no consequences for team biggest red flag” in Simona Halep case

The latest episode of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast welcomed four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters to discuss Simona Halep's continuing anti-doping case.

"To me the biggest red flag is the team," Clijsters said of the situation, which Roddick described as a "vortex.". "I have a really hard time that there is no consequence for the team, that it's just the athlete."

Earlier this month, Halep began her formal challenge of her four-year suspension for committing two anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) in front of the Court Arbitration for Sport (CAS), blaming contaminated supplements as the source of evidence.

Halep first tested positive for the banned substance roxadustat following the US Open in 2022, the year in which she hired coach Patrick Mouratoglou and fired most of her staff—including longtime agent Virginia Rucizi—to work exclusively with members of Mouratoglou's team.

“She basically flipped her whole team and he was kind of in control, brought in his people, but it stinks because she's going to end up being potentially the poster child of a conversation,” Roddick explained.

In November 2023, Patrick Mouratoglou released a video taking responsibility for Halep’s doping saga where he admits that he introduced the collagen that was tested positive.

"His team proposed for her to take and that she takes it without any hesitation, where you trust your team and where you trust the people around," said Clijsters. "You believe that they know that they're doing the right thing and then this happens to her.

"In a situation like this, for women especially, when you have coaches that take over your team where they...I mean, I call it manipulating. I don't find another word for it, for taking control of everything that happens around an athlete I do have a hard time."

Shortly after Mouratoglou took to Instagram, Halep announced in December 2023 that she had cut ties with him and his team.

Mouratoglou made headlines again this week when he announced he was rejoining Holger Rune's coaching squad.

"I'm curious just for the future of the WTA. This can happen over and over again we've seen it in the past where you have these coaches that come in and they take over the life of a player and they want to be in control of everything and everybody that talks to the athlete. It's definitely a huge red flag,” Clijsters said.

"I think Simona is an unfortunate position where she's going to kind of set precedent in a bunch of uncomfortable ways while it seems like no one else involved in the decision making is actually paying the bill for it," Roddick added.

The final decision from CAS in response to Halep’s appeal is expected to take several weeks. This is thought to be a career-ending decision, as Halep would be 36 years old by the time the suspension expires

New episodes of Served with Andy Roddick will premiere Sunday nights exclusively on T2, Tennis Channel’s second network in the United States, beginning March 3rd. It will later be accessible on its official podcast feed and YouTube channel the following Tuesday.