Chris Evert tweets ruthless response to Simona Halep situation

Chris Evert does seemingly everything with class. She played with poise and she commentates during tournaments with well-thought-out remarks and brings a bit of prestige to every event. She is also one of the best former players to still sell tournaments around the world. Chris Evert’s words carry weight and they should.

But she tweeted on Friday about the storm surrounding Simona Halep and she was extremely clear on who she thinks is definitely at fault for the Halep situation. And that fault, according to Every, does not lie with Halep. As things stand now, Halep is currently serving a four-year suspension for testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat.

Halep is appealing the suspension that was handed down earlier in 2023 by the International Tennis Integrity Agency to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. As Halep is 32 years old, she feels, likely quite rightly, that if her appeal is upheld, she will never play again. She would not be able to return until she was 35 years old.

Chris Evert hammers Patrick Mouratoglou in tweet about Simona Halep

Her former coach (and former Serena Wiliams coach) Patrick Mouratoglou posted on Instagram that he feels he is part of the problem because he advised Halep to take some collagen and that the collagen was likely the source of the roxadustat. Therefore, Mouratoglou is saying Halep would not have known she was taking a banned substance.

But Mouratoglou being partly to blame is not good enough for Chris Evert. The tennis great believes Mouratoglou and his team are completely at fault for Halep’s ban and that Halep should be proven innocent and allowed to play again immediately.

In Chris Evert’s tweet on Friday, she said in part, “(Halep) handed her whole life over to her coach and his team, who controlled her career, nutrition, management. I think she’s innocent. Period.”

There is clearly no doubt to Evert that Halep should be set free. But what about Patrick Mouratoglou? Maybe he should be the one who gets suspended. And likely, other players should be afraid to add him on as a coach if he is so careless as to risk his players to suspension.