Iga Swiatek, the women’s world No. 2 tennis player, has received a one-month doping ban after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) issued the ban on Wednesday November 27 and announced it publicly on Thursday, after ruling that the player’s level of fault was at the lowest end of the range for ‘No Significant Fault or Negligence’ and not intentional.
Having already served 22 days of the ban while the process was ongoing, Swiatek — a five-time Grand Slam winner who has spent more than 100 weeks as world No. 1 — has eight more days to serve and so will be eligible to play at the Australian Open in January.
Swiatek, 23, tested positive for a trace concentration of TMZ, a drug normally used as heart medication for its ability to enhance blood flow, in an out-of-competition sample on August 12 ahead of the Cincinnati Open.
Swiatek was informed of the positive test by the ITIA exactly one month later on September 12 and given a mandatory provisional suspension.
Swiatek appealed the provisional suspension within 10 days of the original notice. The appeal was successful, so her provisional suspension was not publicly disclosed. This is in line with the TADP (Tennis Anti-Doping Programme) regulations. This is the same mechanism by which Jannik Sinner’s provisional suspensions, imposed after he tested positive for the anabolic steroid clostebol, were not disclosed.
After submitting her medications and supplements to independent laboratories alongside hair samples, tests confirmed the presence of TMZ in one of the medications used by Swiatek: a melatonin supplement to manage her jetlag which does not require a prescription in Poland and some other EU countries.
The contamination of the drug was also confirmed by an independent WADA-accredited laboratory, which was commissioned independently by the ITIA to confirm the results of the two independent laboratories.
“Once the source of the TMZ had been established, it became clear that this was a highly unusual instance of a contaminated product, which in Poland is a regulated medicine,” said Karen Moorhouse, the chief executive of the ITIA.
“The product does not have the same designation globally, and the fact that a product is a regulated medication in one country cannot of itself be sufficient to avoid any level of fault.
“Taking into account the nature of the medication, and all the circumstances, it does place that fault at the lowest end of the scale.”
Following Swiatek’s successful appeal, the ITIA on October 4 recommended that Swiatek’s suspension be lifted. This allowed her to compete in WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia and the Billie Jean King Cup in Malaga.
During the time of her provisional suspension, Swiatek missed the Korea Open, China Open, and Wuhan Open, which contributed to Swiatek losing her world No. 1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka. At the time of those withdrawals, Swiatek said that her absence was due to “personal reasons”.
The ITIA also confirmed in a statement on Thursday that Swiatek also forfeits prize money from the Cincinnati Open, the tournament directly following the test. The points Swiatek will lose for reaching the semifinals there will not affect her ranking.
During this period, Swiatek also parted ways with her coach of three years Tomasz Wiktorowski in early October and replaced him with Wim Fissette.
In a video statement on Thursday, she said: “This experience, the most difficult in my life so far, taught me a lot.
“The whole thing will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life, it took a lot of strength, returning to training after this situation nearly broke my heart. So there were many tears and lots of sleepless nights.
“The worst part of it was the uncertainty. I didn’t know what was going to happen with my career, how things would end or if I would be allowed to play tennis at all,” she said.
‘Plenty of fans will feel dismayed’
On the face of it, this has been a pretty disastrous few months for tennis.
Only three months on from news of men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner twice testing positive for a banned substance, the most high-profile and successful active women’s player has also been given a doping ban. Swiatek, ranked No.2 partly because of missing three events during the time of her mandatory provisional suspension, was the world No. 1 at the time of her positive test.
The verdict on both cases is that neither player was intentionally doping, but there will still be plenty of tennis fans who feel hugely dismayed by what has happened.
The Sinner case led to a volley of criticism from some players about what they felt was favourable treatment, even though due process was followed at every stage. Likewise there was criticism of the fact that the investigation was done in private, even though again this followed ITIA protocols.
We can expect similar comments in the wake of Swiatek’s case, with tennis inevitably facing questions around its integrity and credibility.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women’s Tennis
2024 The Athletic Media Company
