 "File image of WTA World No 2 and five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek. AP")
World number two Iga Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension for failing a doping test, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced on Thursday. Swiatek tested positive for a banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication known as TMZ, in an out-of-competition sample submitted in August, 2024.
The five-time Grand Slam champion, however, clarified that the incident was not intentional. Additionally, the ITIA accepted that the positive test had been caused by contamination of a non-prescription medicine melatonin that the Polish tennis star was taking for issues pertaining to jet lag and sleeping.
The agency further added that Swiatek’s offence was “at the lowest end of the range for no significant fault or negligence.”
“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. However, 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," ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse said.
“Taking into account the nature of the medication, and all the circumstances, it does place that fault at the lowest end of the scale," Moorhouse said. “This case is an important reminder for tennis players of the strict liability nature of the World Anti-Doping Code and the importance of players carefully considering the use of supplements and medications.”
Swiatek, who has won the French Open times and added the US Open to her collection two years ago, formally admitted the anti-doping violation on Wednesday and accepted her penalty. She had been provisionally suspended from 22 September to 4 October, her ban ending after she showed in her appeal that the test result came inadvertently from contaminated melatonin.
Swiatek will thus serve the remaining days of her one-month suspension and will be cleared to compete from 4 December. The 23-year-old was also fined the prize money of $158,944 that she had won for her semi-final run at the Cincinnati Open in August, the event that had taken place immediately after the positive test.
Her case is the second major doping case in tennis after Italy’ Jannik Sinner, the men’s world No 1 who had failed two tests for a steroid in March and was cleared right before the US Open, which he would go on to win to add a second Grand Slam title to his cabinet – both coming this year.