Tennis star and five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek has been suspended one month for a doping violation, she revealed on Thanksgiving Day.
Swiatek, 23, examined constructive for trimetazidine, a banned coronary heart remedy identified higher as TMZ, in August. She stated the results of the check was unintentional and attributable to contamination of a sleep remedy, melatonin, which is offered over-the-counter within the U.S.
“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 stated in an Instagram video.
Iga Swiatek. (Angel Martinez/Getty Pictures for ITF)
The Worldwide Tennis Integrity Company, which handles tennis doping instances, stated Swiatek’s stage of fault was “at the lowest end of the range for no significant fault or negligence.”
Swiatek secretly served 22 days of the 30-day suspension from Sept. 12 to Oct. 4, lacking the Korea Open, the China Open and the Wuhan Open whereas she was provisionally suspended. On the time, Swiatek stated she was lacking the Asian hardcourt tournaments for “personal reasons.”
On Wednesday, Swiatek formally accepted the one-month suspension, that means she is going to serve the remaining eight days when no tournaments are scheduled. Swiatek additionally forfeited $158,944 in prize cash, which she earned from a semifinal look on the Cincinnati Open instantly after the constructive check end result.
“This experience, the most difficult in my life so far, taught me a lot,” Swiatek stated in her social media video. “I can start my new season with a clean slate, focused on what I’ve always done — simply playing tennis.”
Swiatek’s case bears some resemblance to the doping case of one other younger tennis star, males’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner. Sinner was in a position to keep away from a suspension in his case, as his private crew labored quickly to show his innocence, and the ITIA accepted his clarification.
