Dual Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has launched a passionate tirade directed at the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) following former world No.1 Iga Świątek's one-month doping ban.
Halep was provisionally banned in October 2022 after she consumed a banned substance called Roxadustat, and was later prohibited from competing on the WTA Tour for four years.
However, the 33-year-old's appeal was successful during a trial at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in March, reducing her ban to nine months which had already been served.
In a lengthy Instagram post after the news concerning Świątek broke, Halep didn't mince her words in what she claims is another case of inconsistency.
"I sit and try to understand but it is really impossible for me to understand something like this," the Romanian posted.
"I sit and wonder, 'Why such a big difference in treatment and judgement?' 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 organisation that did absolutely everything to destroy me despite the evidence."
It comes as world No.1 on the men's side, Jannik Sinner, also tested positive for a banned substance in March, before the news was released to the public six months later.
"I have always believed in good, I have believed in the fairness of this sport, I have believed in kindness," Halep continued.
"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?
"I lost two years of my career, I lost many nights when I couldn't sleep, thoughts, anxiety, questions without answers... but I won justice. It turned out that it was a contamination and that the biological passport was a pure invention."
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