Serena Williams has entered the chat.
Some on X (formerly Twitter) believe the tennis legend threw shade at Simona Halep after the Romanian pro was hit with a four-year ban from tennis for two doping violations.
After the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced Halep’s discipline Tuesday, Williams took to X and posted: “8 is a better number.”
Williams won seven Wimbledon singles titles and lost to Halep in the 2019 Wimbledon final, as noted by Tennis.com.
Halep defeated Williams, 6-2, 6-2, which marked her first loss to a fellow former world No. 1 at a major.
In a separate post Tuesday, Williams and her husband, Alexis Ohanian shared a cryptic exchange.
The Reddit co-founder posted a photo of himself cheering on Williams in the stands when she defeated Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-1, at the 2019 US Open.
Ohanian, who was wearing a D.A.R.E. shirt (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) in the photo, wrote: “Some fashion is timeless.”
Williams replied: “Seriously not out of style.”
Sharapova was hit in 2016 with a two-year ban over doping, which was reduced to 15 months.
Williams last faced Halep at the 2021 Australian Open, when she defeated the Romanian in straight sets,, 6-3 6-3, in their women’s singles quarterfinal match.
Halep, a two-time Grand Slam champion, has vowed to “clear [her] name,” and plans on appealing the ruling and “pursue all legal remedies against the supplement company in question.”
The 31-year-old claimed she changed her nutritional supplements under the advice of her coaching staff and doctors.
“The last year has been the hardest match of my life, and unfortunately, my fight continues,” Halep said in a statement. “I have devoted my life to the beautiful game of tennis.
“I take the rules that govern our sport very seriously and take pride in the fact I have never knowingly or intentionally used any prohibited substance. I refuse to accept their decision of a four-year ban.”
Halep was served the four-year ban after the ITIA analyzed 51 of Halep’s blood samples and found “irregularities” in Halep’s Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), which is used to “monitor selected biological variables over time that indirectly reveal the effects of doping.”
“The ITIA relied solely on the opinions of these experts who looked only at my blood parameters — which I’ve maintained for more than 10 years in the same range,” Halep alleged.
Halep’s first violation came in October 2022 when she was suspended for eight months after she tested positive for Roxadustat — a blood booster on the ITIA’s banned substance list, which “increases hemoglobin and the production of red blood cells” in the body but is commonly used to treat anemia.”
Halep’s suspension is retroactive to Oct. 7, 2022 and ends Oct. 6, 2026.