Simona Halep questions handling of her doping case after Iga Swiatek’s one-month ban
Romanian questions why she was banned for more than 18 months for her drugs violation while the Polish world No 1 was suspended for 1 month
Simona Halep has questioned the “big difference” in how doping cases are treated after world No 2 Iga Swiatek was handed a one-month drugs ban while the Romanian was out of action for more than 18 months following two separate anti-doping violations.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) said on Thursday that Swiatek had accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).
The Pole tested positive in August but the ITIA, which runs tennis’s anti-doping programme, accepted that it was caused by contamination of her medication melatonin.
Halep was provisionally suspended in October 2022 and later banned for four years, a period that was reduced to nine months in March after an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
She had strongly denied knowingly taking the banned substance roxadustat and said she had evidence to show small amounts of the anaemia drug entered her system from a contaminated licensed supplement.
“I stand and ask myself, why is there such a big difference in treatment and judgment?” former world No 1 Halep said in a post on Instagram on Thursday. “I can’t find and I don’t think there can be a logical answer.
