Patrick Mouratoglou says he feels 'responsible' for Simona Halep's doping saga

Patrick Mouratoglou is taking responsibility for Simona Halep's ongoing doping saga.

In a new Instagram video, the French coach says that his team provided her with the allegedly contaminated collagen supplement that she argues led to her testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat after the 2022 US Open, and has since kicked off a series of events that leave the future of the former world No. 1's tennis career in doubt.

“There is no way to know it, but I feel responsible for what happened because it’s my team, so me basically me, who brought her this collagen," Mouratoglou, who started officially working with Halep less than six months prior to her testing positive, said.

Halep had been off the tour since her initial positive test, and in May, she was hit with a second anti-doping violation over apparent irregularities in her athlete biological passport. In September, the handed down a four-year ban to Halep, one that she's appealing.

"It opened my eyes on the fact that any athlete can become contaminated tomorrow because apparently this happens more and more," Mouratoglou continued.

"This is terrible because you are completely innocent, your reputation is impacted, hurt by the fact that your name has to do with doping even though you didn't do any doping. Your career is stopped for a period of time that is extremely long. It can affect your whole career, it affects your reputation for a very unfair reason because you have done nothing.

"So it opened by eyes that it can happen to anyone, and the companies that you decide to go with for supplements, you have to be sure at 100% that this cannot happen."

Mouratoglou has been one of Halep's staunchest and most vocal supporters since news of her positive test broke a year ago, and that continued this week. Having echoed the Romanian's claims of "harassment" by the ITIA over the last year-plus and calling the four-year ban "unfair," Mouratoglou has now expressed hope that Halep's ban will be overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

"I feel confident for the future of Simona with her appeal to the CAS, because it's an independent tribunal," he said.

“We have done all possible tests to be able to establish that we are talking about a contamination. I’m very confident that this independent tribunal will recognize the fact that she never did doping.

“She is a victim and she has to come back to the court and be able to compete as soon as possible.”