An 18-year-old Romanian player, Maria Sara Popa, has accused Patrick Mouratoglou’s tennis academy of administering “substances” to junior players, adding a new layer to the ongoing doping controversy surrounding Simona Halep.
Popa, a rising star who trained at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France when she was 12, claimed that young players at the academy “are given some substances.”
Mouratoglou, known for his work with top tennis stars like Serena Williams, Coco Gauff, and Stefanos Tsitsipas, among others, has been in the spotlight following the doping scandal involving two-time major winner Halep. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) handed Halep a four-year ban for “intentional” doping offenses in September 2023.