Simona Halep questioned the “large distinction” in how doping circumstances are handled after world No 2 Iga Swiatek was handed a one-month medication ban whereas the Romanian was out of motion for greater than 18 months following two separate anti-doping violations.
The Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company (ITIA) stated on Thursday that Swiatek had accepted a one-month suspension after testing constructive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).
The Pole, 23, examined constructive in August however the ITIA, which runs tennis’s anti-doping programme, accepted that it was attributable to contamination of her treatment, melatonin.
Halep, 33, 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 court docket of arbitration for sport.
She had strongly denied knowingly taking the banned substance roxadustat and stated she had proof to point out small quantities of the anaemia drug entered her system from a contaminated licensed complement.
“I stand and ask myself, why is there such an enormous distinction in therapy and judgment?” Halep, the previous world No 1, stated in a publish on Instagram on Thursday. “I can’t discover and I don’t suppose there is usually a logical reply.
“It could solely be dangerous will from the ITIA, the organisation that has achieved completely all the pieces to destroy me regardless of the proof … It was painful, it’s painful and perhaps the injustice that was achieved to me will all the time be painful.”
The ITIA stated all circumstances had been handled primarily based on information and proof, not a participant’s title, rating or nationality.
“No two circumstances are the identical, they typically contain completely different circumstances, and direct comparisons are usually not all the time useful. There are some essential variations in these two circumstances,” the ITIA stated.
“The product contaminated in Swiatek’s case was a regulated treatment, not a complement. There was settlement amongst impartial scientific consultants surrounding the information and the participant admitted the anti-doping rule violation.
“We urge gamers to train excessive warning when taking dietary supplements and we’re all the time blissful to reply any questions they’ve.”
Halep, the previous Wimbledon and French Open champion, had criticised tennis authorities for the size of time it took to course of her case. After her provisional suspension in October 2022, she acquired her four-year ban in September 2023.
Swiatek, who was world No 1 when she failed the check, was provisionally suspended on 12 September, however had it lifted on 4 October, 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 12 months.
An impartial tribunal accepted the Italian’s clarification that the anabolic agent clostebol had entered his system from a member of his assist crew by massages and sports activities remedy.
Sinner may nonetheless be banned for as much as two years with the World Anti-Doping Company interesting in opposition to the choice in his case at sport’s highest court docket.
Amid questions in regards to the dealing with of the circumstances of Swiatek and Sinner, ITIA chief govt Karen Moorhouse stated at a media briefing on Thursday: “These aren’t circumstances of intentional doping. We’re coping with inadvertent breaches of the principles.
“So I don’t suppose this can be a trigger for concern for tennis followers. The truth that we’re being clearly open, clear, and it exhibits the breadth and depth of our anti-doping programme.”
The Skilled Tennis Gamers Affiliation (PTPA), which was established by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil in 2020, stated 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 assist 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.”
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