Simona Halep questioned the “large distinction” in how doping instances are handled after world No. 2 Iga Swiatek was handed a one-month ban whereas the Romanian was out of motion for over 18 months following two separate anti-doping violations.
The Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company (ITIA) mentioned on Thursday that Swiatek had accepted a one-month suspension after testing constructive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).
The Pole examined constructive in August however the ITIA, which runs tennis’s anti-doping program, accepted that it was attributable to contamination of her remedy melatonin.
Halep was provisionally suspended in October 2022 and later banned for 4 years, a interval which was diminished to 9 months in March after an enchantment on the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport.
She had strongly denied knowingly taking the banned substance roxadustat and mentioned she had proof to indicate small quantities of the anemia drug entered her system from a contaminated licensed complement.
“I stand and ask myself, why is there such a giant distinction in therapy and judgment?” former world primary Halep mentioned in a publish on Instagram on Thursday. “I can not discover and I do not assume there generally is a logical reply.
“It will possibly solely be dangerous will from the ITIA, the organisation that has completed completely all the things to destroy me regardless of the proof … It was painful, it’s painful and perhaps the injustice that was completed to me will at all times be painful.”
Reuters has contacted the ITIA for remark.
Former Wimbledon and French Open champion Halep had criticized tennis authorities for the size of time it took to course of her case. After her provisional suspension in October 2022, Halep obtained her four-year ban in September 2023.
Swiatek, who was world No. 1 when she failed the take a look at, was provisionally suspended on Sept. 12, however had it lifted on Oct. 4, leaving her with simply over every week’s ban to serve.
Gamers on each excursions known as out what they perceived as double requirements within the sport when males’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner was cleared of wrongdoing regardless of failing two drug assessments earlier this yr.
An impartial tribunal accepted the Italian’s rationalization that the anabolic agent clostebol had entered his system from a member of his help staff via massages and sports activities remedy.
Sinner might nonetheless be banned for as much as two years with the World Anti-Doping Company interesting the choice in his case at sport’s highest court docket.
Amid questions in regards to the dealing with of the instances of Swiatek and Sinner, ITIA chief government Karen Moorhouse mentioned at a media briefing on Thursday: “These aren’t instances of intentional doping. We’re coping with inadvertent breaches of the foundations.
“So I do not assume this can be a trigger for concern for tennis followers. The truth that we’re being clearly open, clear, and it reveals the breadth and depth of our anti-doping program.”
The Skilled Tennis Gamers Affiliation (PTPA), which was established by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil in 2020, mentioned late on Thursday that tennis wanted an anti-doping system rooted in transparency, consistency and objectivity.
“Gamers deserve and are entitled to due course of and help in navigating the anti-doping system, no matter rating and entry to assets … [They] deserve and are entitled to governance that they belief,” the advocacy group added.
“Our battle to overtake the failing tennis system continues.”
