Five-time Grand Champion Iga Swiatek has accepted a one-month ban from tennis.
This result comes from a positive test result for a heart medication in the summer. Trimetazidine, a heart medication used mostly for preventing angina attacks, was found in a sample from Swiatek in an out-competition sample from August.
Although the drug could be completely innocent, Trimetazidine has been linked to improving psychomotor performance and vigilance in healthy people and can advance total reaction time.
“In the last 2.5 months I was subject to strict ITIA proceedings, which confirmed my innocence.”
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) handed out the ban and accepted that it was caused by contamination of her medication melatonin, which was manufactured and sold in Poland. Swiatek had been taking it for jet-lag and sleep issues. As there was no significant fault or negligence, the ITIA offered her a one-month suspension, which Swiatek accepted.
Swiatek was also forced to forfeit the prize money from the Cincinnati Open, which she won just before the positive drug test.
In a statement released on the 28th of November, the ITIA announced, “The player was provisionally suspended from September 22nd until October 4th, missing three tournaments, which counts towards the sanction, leaving eight days remaining.”
“I want to be open with you, even though I know I did nothing wrong”
Swiatek spoke out on Instagram, describing the experience as “the worst experience of my life” She continues, “The only positive doping test in my career, showing an unbelievably low level of a banned substance I’ve never heard about before, put everything I’ve worked so hard for my entire life into question. Both me and my team had to deal with tremendous stress and anxiety. Now everything has been carefully explained, and with a clean slate, I can go back to what I love most.”
