World No. 2 Iga Swiatek said Friday she is ready to move on from a doping controversy, insisting there is no reason for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to appeal her case.
The 23-year-old Pole tested positive for the heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition sample in August while ranked No. 1.
However, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) determined the violation was unintentional, resulting in a one-month suspension that caused her to miss three Asian tournaments and lose her top ranking.
The news broke in late November, and Swiatek is set to return to competition at the United Cup in Sydney ahead of the Australian Open next month.
Swiatek acknowledged the incident was “mentally tough” but noted the public response has been mostly supportive, easing concerns that she would face widespread backlash.
“I think people, most of them, are understanding,” said the five-time Grand Slam champion.
“And the ones who read the documents and are aware of how the system works, they know that I had no fault and had no influence on what was going on.”
“I try to just go on with my life and focus on different things, focus on preparing for the season and on tennis, because this is the best thing you can do after a case like that,” she said.
Her case is similar to that of Italian men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who was exonerated by the ITIA for twice testing positive for traces of the steroid clostebol in March. But WADA appealed the decision in September, and Sinner is awaiting the outcome.
Swiatek said she does not anticipate WADA will follow the same path with her.
“I gave every possible piece of evidence, and there is not much, honestly, more to do,” she said.
“There is no point in appealing, in our opinion.”
“But, you know, I guess overall, this whole process was pretty abstract at times and hard to understand from a perspective where you don’t think about the law and everything.”
“But honestly, this is about the law and the wording and this kind of stuff. So I’m not expecting an appeal, but I have kind of no influence on what’s going to happen.”
“But I can say from the processes I went through and how they treated me from the beginning, that it seemed fair to me,” she said.
“I managed to give the source (of the contamination) pretty quickly. That’s why the case closed pretty quickly.”