Simona Halep, renowned for her victories at Wimbledon and the French Open, has voiced her frustration regarding the disparate handling of Iga Swiatek’s doping incident in contrast to her own experience. The Romanian tennis star, now 33, received a hefty four-year suspension for doping, and she believes that there are stark contrasts in how both situations have been managed by the tennis governing bodies.
Halep took to her Instagram on Friday to express her bewilderment, stating, “I sit and try to understand but it is really impossible for me to understand something like this. I sit and wonder, ‘Why such a big difference in treatment and judgment?’ I can’t find, and I don’t think there can be, a logical answer. It can only be bad will on the part of ITIA, the organization that did absolutely everything to destroy me despite the evidence.”
On Thursday, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) revealed that Swiatek, a five-time major champion, accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for trimetazidine, a substance prohibited in sports. The young Polish athlete, aged 23, failed an out-of-competition drug test in August. However, the ITIA accepted her explanation that the positive result stemmed from the unintentional contamination of a non-prescription medication, melatonin, which she used to combat jet lag and sleep issues.
In Halep’s case, she faced a four-year suspension after testing positive for Roxadustat during the 2022 U.S. Open. Although her punishment was later reduced to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after they accepted her claim regarding a contaminated supplement, Halep ended up missing a significant one and a half years of competitive play.
“I have always believed in good, I have believed in the fairness of this sport, I have believed in kindness,” she wrote on Instagram. “The injustice that was done to me was painful, is painful, and maybe will always be painful. How is it possible that in identical cases that happened at about the same time (of the season), ITIA has completely different approaches, to my detriment?”
Swiatek’s suspension ignited reactions from within the tennis community, including men’s player Nick Kyrgios, who commented, “OUR SPORT IS COOKED” on X, while Canadian player Denis Shapovalov added a sarcastic note with, “1 month ban eh.”
This incident also echoes a previous situation involving Jannik Sinner, the top men’s player, who tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March but escaped suspension as the ITIA determined he was not at fault. This has led to allegations of a two-tier system that seemed to offer Sinner protective measures due to his prominent status in the sport.
Earlier this month, Andrea Gaudenzi, chairman of the ATP Tour, admitted that there “could have been better communication” regarding the rules tied to Sinner’s case, but he denied any claims of double standards in handling doping cases. Meanwhile, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has appealed the ITIA’s decision to clear Sinner, seeking a suspension of one to two years, with the final ruling expected from CAS in 2025.