The five-time Grand Slam winner was banned for a month after testing positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine (TMZ). The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced this on Thursday. Swiatek formally admitted the anti-doping rule violation on Wednesday and accepted her punishment.
The 23-year-old Pole provided the positive sample in August outside of competition. She was then provisionally suspended from September 22nd to October 4th and missed three tournaments in Asia following the US Open.
The ITIA accepted Swiatek’s explanation that the ingestion was accidental and caused by contamination of a non-prescription drug, melatonin. Swiatek took this because of problems with jet lag and sleep disorders. Her culpability was found to be “at the lowest end of the scale for no significant fault or negligence,” the ITIA said.
Swiatek is already the second high-profile doping case in international tennis in recent times. In March, Jannik Sinner tested positive twice for a banned steroid. In August, just before the US Open, which he won, the Italian was acquitted. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA lodged an objection and the case is currently before the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
