Iga Swiatek Accuses Critics Of Treating Her 'Like A Liar' In Doping Case
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In a recent podcast appearance, Iga Swiatek opened up about how she has been treated since her doping case became public, accusing some of unfairly acting like she is a liar.
Rightly or wrongly, Swiatek will likely face questions throughout the 2025 season about her one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine. That story became public on November 28th.
The five-time Grand Slam champion tested positive from an out-of-competition sample she submitted in August and received a provisional suspension from the International Tennis Integrity Agency on September 12th.
Swiatek appealed the provisional ban on September 22nd and had it successfully overturned on October 4th after further testing proved her explanation that the melatonin tablets she bought were contaminated with trimetazidine.
The Pole appealing within ten days meant her case was kept private until the one-month ban was confirmed. That has led to anger about a lack of transparency similar to Jannik Sinner's case.
Swiatek admitted she was worried about how other players would react to the case. However, the former world No. 1 stated that several players had contacted her privately to express support and understanding.
Aryna Sabalenka, the current WTA world No. 1, spoke carefully about the situation when asked about it but was also videoed training with Swiatek ahead of the new season, indicating their relationship has not been negatively impacted by her case.
One person who spoke more bluntly was former French Open winner Ilie Nastase. He claimed that Swiatek was not treated as harshly as his compatriot Simona Halep because she is Polish, while Halep is Romanian.
Nick Kyrgios has also criticized Swiatek and the handling of the case, although the controversial Australian has reserved most of his anger for Sinner. Nonetheless, he believes both cases are disgusting for tennis.
Swiatek recently appeared on Caroline Garcia's Tennis Insider Podcast. During the episode, she spoke about being at peace with herself despite feeling that some have tried to inaccurately portray her as a liar.
“You can be at peace with yourself that you didn't do anything wrong, but no one actually treats you like that… Especially the people that are kind of prosecuting you. Even when you’re telling the truth, you feel like they treat you like a liar."
“I fought for everything so hard the past years. What if people are going to, in their head, take it away from me? What if they're going to look at me differently? I was home at the time and still there were people coming for autographs or for a selfie. And I was like 'Well, are you gonna do that in one month?'"
Although it did not cause the same angst as her doping case being made public, Swiatek caused more controversy by suddenly taking medical timeouts at the United Cup against Katie Boulter and in her loss during the final to Coco Gauff at 4-6, 4-5 down.
Swiatek admitted after the match that the medical timeout against Gauff was taken due to being tired and not because of an injury. It is questionable whether that was in the spirit of the game from Swiatek since Gauff was one game from victory and had recovered from a break down in the second set.
