Simona Halep exposes tennis with comments about Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek

We can mostly agree that Simona Halep was done wrong by the International Tennis Integrity Agency, both at the time she failed a drug test when she tested positive for Roxadustat at the 2022 US Open and even now. That is because, compared to Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, Halep was treated unfairly.

The news of her positive test was announced quite quickly. Sinner's was not known until five months after he tested positive for clostebol in March of this year at Indian Wells. Swiatek tested positive for trimetazidine in August, but we did not know about the positive test until late November. Maybe Swiatek has an argument at the ITIA as well because she actually received a punishment and Sinner didn't.

Still, Halep was the one that suffered the most. She was handed a four-year suspension, and she had to fight back to get the ban down to nine months. Even then, the suspension was unfair compared to Sinner and Swiatek because all three players allegedly did nothing knowingly wrong. The substance in Halep's system came from tainted collagen that her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou had given her.

Simona Halep has issues with how her failed drug test was handled compared to Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek

Halep spoke with The Telegraph this week about her situation compared to the other two players. She said she thought it was "very weird" that tennis fans did not know about the failed tests of Sinner and Swiatek for months while Halep's results were known much quicker. She could have used a different word than "weird," though. She could have simply said "wrong."

Halep said that there was a "big difference in treatment and judgment," and "What I believe is not fair, either, is that they announced my case straight away, and I got all the heat from the press, and for these two players (Sinner and Swiatek) they kept it secret, and they just said about the case when everything was done, so it’s very weird. And I asked also to lift the provisional suspension to be able to play...I asked this about two or three times, but now they (Sinner and Swiatek) could play."

That is mostly true. Swiatek served a one-month suspension about a month after she tested positive. She missed three tournaments, and that ultimately cost her the year-end WTA No. 1 ranking. Sinner only had to give up the prize money and ranking points he earned at Indian Wells.

Still, Halep's point is valid, and tennis needs to change. There needs to be much more uniformity in how soon failed drug test results are announced, plus a much more uniform length of discipline. If Swiatek was suspended for a month, so should Sinner have been. And, compared to Sinner and Swiatek, Halep's immediate suspension should have been no more than one month either.

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