Simona Halep hits out at ITIA after Iga Swiatek escapes long doping ban

Simona Halep has questioned the "big difference" in how doping cases are treated after world number two Iga Swiatek was handed a one-month drugs ban while the Romanian was out of action for over 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 which 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 number one Halep said in a post on Instagram. "I can't find and I don't think there can be a logical answer.

"It can only be bad will from the ITIA, the organisation that has done absolutely everything to destroy me despite the evidence... It was painful, it is painful and maybe the injustice that was done to me will always be painful."

The ITIA have been contacted for comment.

Former Wimbledon and French Open champion Halep had criticised tennis authorities for the length of time it took to process her case. After her provisional suspension in October 2022, Halep received her four-year ban in September 2023.

Swiatek, who was world number one when she failed