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New Delhi, 29 November (HS). Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek has accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (a heart drug known as TMZ). The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) made the above announcement on Thursday.
Swiatek failed an out-of-competition drug test in August, and the ITIA accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and was caused by contamination from a non-prescription drug, melatonin, which Swiatek was taking to treat jet lag and Was taking it for sleep problems.
The ITIA said it determined that their level of fault was at the lowest end of the range without any significant fault or negligence.
“This experience, which was the hardest experience of my life so far, taught me a lot,” Swiatek, 23, from Poland, said in a video posted on social media.
“This whole thing will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life,” he said. This situation almost broke my heart, after which it took a lot of time to get back to training, so there were a lot of tears and a lot of sleepless nights.”
“The worst part of it was the uncertainty,” Swiatek said, speaking in Polish, whose English translation is scrolled to the top of the post. “I didn’t know what was going to happen with my career, how things would end or whether I would be allowed to play tennis.”
This is the second recent high-profile doping case in tennis, with top-ranked Jannik Sinner failing two tests for steroids in March and being cleared just before the start of the US Open in August. She won to capture her second Grand Slam title of the season. Sinner did not miss any competition; The World Anti-Doping Agency has appealed against the decision acquitting him.
Swiatek reached No. 1 in the WTA rankings for the first time in April 2022 and has remained there for most of the time since, but is now No. 2 after being overtaken by Aryna Sabalenka in October. Swiatek won the French Open in June, her fourth title there and fifth Major Championship overall, then won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in early August.
Swiatek formally admitted an anti-doping rule violation on Wednesday and accepted his penalty. TMZ The drug is at the center of a case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who remained eligible in 2021 despite testing positive for performance-enhancing substances.
Swiatek said she was “shocked” by the results of her test and had never heard of TMZ. She said she has been using melatonin “for a long time,” adding that “all my traveling, jet lag, and work-related stress means that sometimes without it, I can’t sleep.”