Contaminated With Questions

On March 5, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rendered its decision on the Simona Halep appeal: the doping was not intentional and the suspension was reduced to 9 months, time long since served. It’s the welcome end to a saga that has dragged on and shaken trust in the sport’s anti-doping institutions. But, we’re left with ever more questions: Why were the conclusions of the ITIA and CAS so starkly different? What of the biological passport results? What took so long? Why are tennis players often so successful at CAS? Aside from the Halep news, we talk about the early happenings at Indian Wells, the cancellation of Netflix’s Break Point, the ATP's annual awkward International Women’s Day video, and more. 

01:40 CAS accepts Simona’s contamination defense and throws out biological passport charge 

07:50 Why are the conclusions of ITIA and CAS so vastly different?

15:00 Comparisons to Sharapova, the question of “innocence” 

25:00 So where are the “real” dopers?

35:30 Indian Wells: withdrawals, Sinner’s win streak, Kerber-Woz revival

45:15 Break Point is over: what went wrong?

50:40 Ruby amends his apology, thanks to Sofya Tartakova

51:50 A (very) slight improvement in the ATP’s Women’s Day video!