Former women’s world No. 1 Simona Halep has criticized the “big difference in treatment” she received from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) compared to the body’s handling of Iga Świątek’s failed test.

Simona Halep has hit out at what she claims is a “big difference” between the way doping cases are handled in tennis. It was revealed on Thursday that world No 2 Iga Swiatek had been banned for one month – the majority of it served secretly as a provisional suspension – after testing positive for the angina drug trimetazidine.

ITIA found Swiatek to be at the lower end of their "no significant fault or negligence" spectrum and she will only serve a ban for eight more days. She successfully argued that the positive test was caused by contamination of the regulated non-prescription medicine melatonin, which she was taking for sleep issues.