After Iga Swiatek’s doping case, the tennis stars are calling for more transparency and uniform procedures for all players – the German Eva Lys also suspects unequal treatment.
The doping case involving five-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek has caused a lack of understanding among some tennis colleagues and raised unanswered questions – including the German player Eva Lys. “I’m slowly starting to believe that not everyone gets the same treatment…,” the Hamburg resident wrote on the short message service X: “There are many lower-ranked players who don’t receive the same treatment as ‘higher-ranked’ players. I’m not saying anyone is innocent or not, I’m saying everyone deserves equal opportunities.”
Swiatek is already the second prominent case of doping in tennis this year; in the spring, today’s world number one Jannik Sinner tested positive for the banned steroid Clostebol. The Italian has now been acquitted. The Polish woman Swiatek, whose blood was found to contain an active ingredient banned in competitive sports on August 12th, was provisionally banned from September 22nd to October 4th.
Doping in tennis: professionals are angry
In the Sinners case, against whose acquittal the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed to the CAS Court of Arbitration for Sports, a discussion arose about comparatively mild punishments for prominent players, and this is now becoming apparent again. Lys also referenced Tara Moore’s case in her post and asked: “What about players who ate contaminated meat in South America? Why didn’t Tara Moore get a one-month ban?”
The Briton was provisionally suspended by the Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) in 2022 because a sample taken during a WTA tournament in the Colombian capital Bogota was positive. It was only 19 months later that an independent ITIA tribunal acquitted her because the substances in question had entered her body through the consumption of contaminated meat.
“Why isn’t anyone serious about corruption?”
Moore also expressed his irritation about Swiatek’s case and demanded consequences for the control organizations. “Why is no one seriously addressing the corruption of the organizations that govern us?” wrote Moore, taking the WTA and ATP, the world association ITF and the Grand Slam tournaments Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open and US Open to task. to examine the ITIA and its procedures for a fairer/open approach”.
The players’ association PTPA, which was founded by Novak Djokovic, “cannot do this alone!” The players are afraid of the institutions that are supposed to protect us! Ask her!” Moore wrote.
