Simona Halep has expressed her frustration after Iga Swiatek received only a short ban for failing a drugs test.
Just over two years after Halep tested positive for the banned substance roxadustat at the 2022 US Open, Swiatek failed a drug test after this year's Cincinnati Open as she tested positive for trimetazidine.
Despite her appeal, Halep was handed a four-year ban and was only eligible to return in 2026.
The Romanian took her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and in February 2024 it was found that she was not at fault or negligent in using the supplement. Her suspension was reduced to nine months and she was cleared to return to action immediately.
That is in sharp contrast to Swiatek's case as she failed her dope test in August and appealed the suspension. The ITIA also found she was not at fault and hit her with a one-month ban. The Pole had already served 22 of her 30 days.
Halep took to social media to hit out at the ITIA, writing: "I am sitting and trying to understand, but it's really impossible for me to understand something like this. I stand and ask myself, why is there 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 the ITIA, the organisation that has done absolutely everything to destroy me despite the evidence.
"They very much wanted to destroy the last years of my career, they wanted something that I could never have imagined could be wanted. I always believed in good, I believed in the fairness of this sport, I believed in goodness.
"It was painful, it is painful and perhaps will always be painful the injustice that was done to me. How is it possible that in identical cases happening around the same time the ITIA have completely different approaches to my detriment. How could I accept that the WTA and the players' council did not want to give me back the ranking I deserved!!!!
"I lost two years of my career, I lost many sleepless nights, thoughts, anxiety, unanswered questions… but I won justice. It turned out it was a contamination and the biological passport was a pure invention.
"And I won something else, my soul stayed clean!!! I feel disappointment, I feel sorrow, I feel frustration, but I don't feel anger even now.
"I am grateful for the unconditional support and love of those who have been with me every day. THANK YOU! In all the meanness, I also had love because those who gave me love in those moments really knew me! Maybe that is the greatest victory!
"As we well know that every morning the sun rises for everyone, but it's good to rise finding yourself with a peaceful soul! And that's what I am, content and proud of who I am."
