Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication known as TMZ, the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced last week.
Swiatek failed an out-of-competition drug test in August, and the ITIA accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and caused by the contamination of a nonprescription medication, melatonin, that Swiatek was taking for issues with jet lag and sleeping.
It was determined her level of fault was “at the lowest end of the range for no significant fault or negligence,” the ITIA said.
“This experience, the most difficult in my life so far, taught me a lot,” Swiatek, a 23-year-old from Poland, said in a video she posted on social media.
“The whole thing will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life. It took a lot to return to training after the situation nearly broke my heart, so there were many tears and lots of sleepless nights,” Swiatek said, speaking in Polish with an English translation scrolling across the top of the post. “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.”
This is the second recent high-profile doping case in tennis: The top-ranked man, Jannik Sinner, failed two tests for a steroid in March and was cleared in August, right before the start of the U.S. Open, which he went on to win for his second Grand Slam title of the season. Sinner did not miss any competition; the World Anti-Doping Agency has appealed the ruling that exonerated him.
Swiatek reached No. 1 in the WTA rankings for the first time in April 2022, and she remained there much of the time since but is now at No. 2 after being overtaken by Aryna Sabalenka in October.
Swiatek won the French Open in June for her fourth title there and fifth major championship overall, then took home a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in early August.
