Iga Swiatek It has dominated the circuit in recent years, although now it is number two in the world. On Thursday, November 28, it was learned that he tested positive for trimetadizine consumption (TMZ) last August and therefore missed three tournaments due to provisional suspension, one in Korea and two in China, although he excused his absence due to rest and changes to his team. According to the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA)was not made public before because the Pole appealed within ten days of testing positive. The ITIA considered that there was “nosignificant negligence“in the positive of the Polish woman and applied the lightest sanction as it involved contaminated consumption: one month.
The case has awakened the worst nightmares of another former number one, Simona Halep (2018 Wimbledon and 2019 Roland Garros champion), who was banned for four years for taking roxadustata banned substance, during the US Open, in August 2022. The Romanian tennis player took her case to the end, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS), where he ended up winning. The CAS concluded that the consumption of that substance, through a contaminated supplement, was not intentional, although there is a difference: it did see “a certain level of negligence” in the tennis player. This justified maintaining the sanction, although very reduced: from four years to nine months. After learning what happened with Swiatek, Halep wrote this on Instagram:
“I’m sitting there trying to understand, but it’s really impossible for me to understand something like this. I stand up and wonder, Why is there a big difference in treatment and trial? I can’t find and I don’t think there can be a logical answer. It can only be the ill will of ITIA, the organization that has done absolutely everything to destroy me despite the evidence. I really wanted to destroy the last few years of my career, I wanted something I never would have imagined would be loved.
I always believed in good, I believed in the justice of this sport, I believed in goodness. It was painful, it is painful and perhaps the injustice done to me will always be painful. How is it possible that in identical cases the ITIA has completely different approaches to my detriment. How could I accept that the WTA and the players’ council did not want to give me back the ranking I deserved?!
I lost two years of my career, I lost many nights when I couldn’t sleep, thoughts, anxiety, questions without answers… but I won justice. It turned out that it was a contamination and that the biological passport was a pure invention.
Y I gained something else, my soul remained clean!! I feel disappointed, I feel angry, I feel frustrated, but even now I don’t feel bad.
I appreciate the support and unconditional love of those who have been by my side every day. THANK YOU! I also received love because those who offered me love in those moments really knew me! Maybe this is the biggest victory!
As we know well that the sun rises every morning for everyone, but it is good to wake up meeting a perfect soul! And that’s how I am, packed and proud of who I am!”
