The Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company (ITIA) is going through extreme backlash for providing Iga Swiatek only a one-month ban after the world No. 2 examined constructive for the banned substance trimetazidine in August.
Former world No. 1 Simona Halep — banned in 2022 for 9 months (initially 4 years) for testing constructive for roxadustat — blasted the ITIA for the disparity in the way it palms out bans.
By way of a strongly-worded social media put up, Halep questioned how her case differed from Swiatek’s.
“I stand and ask myself, why is there such a giant distinction in therapy and judgment?” Halep wrote on Instagram. “I am unable to discover and I do not suppose there could be a logical reply. It may possibly solely be dangerous will from the ITIA, the organisation that has achieved completely every little thing to destroy me regardless of the proof. It was painful, it’s painful and perhaps the injustice that was achieved to me will at all times be painful.”
On the time of her suspension, Halep denied data of taking the banned substance, arguing that solely small quantities of the anemia drug entered her system from a licensed complement. In Swiatek’s case, ITIA absolved her of “no vital fault or negligence” since her constructive check was attributable to a regulated treatment bought in Poland that she had been taking “for jet lag and sleep points.”
