World no. 2 Iga Swiatek recently completed a one-month doping ban, after testing positive for a prohibited substance (trimetazidine), in an out-of-competition sample in August this year. The ITIA accepted her defence that the positive test was due to contamination of a regulated non-prescription medicine melatonin, which was manufactured and sold in Poland. Swiatek reportedly consumed it due to jet lag and sleep issues, and it was deemed that it was unintentional.
Her suspension officially ended on December 4th. Simona Halep was given a four-year ban by CAS, but after proving her innocence, it was reduced to nine months. On her return, she wasn’t handed her pre-ban ranking back. In an interview with The Telegraph, Halep with the decisions made on Jannik Sinner and Swiatek. She said, “What I believe is not fair, either, is that they announced my case straight away, and I got all the heat from the press, and for these two players they kept it secret, and they just said about the case when everything was done, so it’s very weird. And I asked also to lift the provisional suspension to be able to play. I said, ‘If you believe in the end that I am guilty, you take the points back and all the money and everything, but let me play,’ because I wanted to keep the rhythm. I asked this about two or three times, but now they (Jannik and Iga) could play.”
Meanwhile, WTA star Jessica Pegula had a diplomatic approach when asked about Swiatek’s ban. She said, “I don’t know, it seems like they investigated it and she had her reasoning. I mean you have to trust that they’re doing their job—that they’re coming to the right conclusion.”
But the American too has been left confused by the length of Swiatek’s ban. She added, “I think it’s just frustrating for people on the outside—or even for some players—that it just seems so hit or miss with how people get punished. I’ve been explained why it happens. But at the same time it’s like ‘Yeah, but how does this vary so deeply?’ And I think that can be frustrating. But how it was explained to me, it seems pretty cut and dried almost. And the explanation made sense.”
Meanwhile, British player Emma Raducanu feels that now players will be more fearful of taking supplements because nobody wants to consume prohibited substances unintentionally. “I think in general, not just me but a lot of the players I know, we’re quite apprehensive. Everything we take, we are very aware of the situation and how easily things can be contaminated. And there are certain supplements that I may want to take but I can’t take them because they’re over-the-counter and they’re not batch tested (pre-tested for prohibited substances),” she said.
“To batch test something is £1,000 for one little thing, so it’s very expensive. For the things that you really, really need to take, then it’s obviously worth that, but you just have to cut out a lot of things that you wouldn’t necessarily take. I’m very careful with what I drink, what I eat. If I leave my water around, I’m very on edge about it. But it’s just part of the sport. We’re all in the same boat,” she added.
Swiatek was reportedly tested in August during the Paris Olympics, where it came negative. She won bronze, and then went to the United States to begin her North American campaign. Due to jet lag and sleep issues, she consumed melatonin pills to deal with the problems, which led to her failing a doping test in Cincinnati.
