It’s a decision that doesn’t sit well with Simona Halep. The former world number one reacted bitterly on Instagram to the sanction imposed on Iga Swiatek, who tested positive for trimetazidine during a test carried out on August 12, three days before her entry into the Cincinnati tournament.
“I sit down and try to understand, but it’s really impossible for me to understand such a thing,” criticizes the current 833rd in the WTA rankings, herself suspended in 2022. I get up and I wonder why is there such a big difference in treatment and judgment? I don’t find and don’t think there can be a logical answer. »
Following a positive test for roxadustat, a product banned by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), which allows a better oxygen supply and promotes the production of red blood cells, the Romanian received a 4-year suspension. His sanction was reduced to nine months after his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Iga Swiatek was sanctioned one month after her positive test.
“It can only be bad will on the part of the ITIA (the International Tennis Integrity Agency), the organization that did everything to destroy me despite the evidence, she continues. (…) The injustice of which I was a victim was painful, it is painful and perhaps always will be. How is it possible that in identical cases happening around the same time, the ITIA has completely different approaches to my detriment. »
Iga Swiatek was provisionally suspended from September 12 to October 4, missing three tournaments (the WTA 500 in Seoul and the two WTA 1,000 in China, in Beijing and Wuhan). She was able to return to competition in early November after having her appeal accepted. “It was a hard blow for me. I was very shocked. This situation made me very nervous. At first, I didn’t understand how it was possible and where it came from,” Iga Swiatek explained on her social networks this Thursday.
