Iga Swiatek felt she was 'losing integrity' after failed dope test

World No. 3 Iga Swiatek "cried for two weeks" after receiving an email in November 2024 that informed her she had failed a drug test for the banned substance trimetazidine a few months earlier.

In response, the Pole argued that a batch of her non-prescription melatonin, which she used for sleep and jet lag issues, had been contaminated, a claim that two WADA-accredited labs later verified. Furthermore, the ITIA concluded that Swiatek's doping violation "was not intentional" after a series of thorough investigations. 

During the investigation, Swiatek quietly accepted a one-month ban, which caused her to miss three tournaments, including WTA1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan. When the news was finally made public, many people, unaware of the real story, started casting aspersions. Swiatek was called everything from "a cheat" to "a fraud," all while she was in a deep state of depression from the initial shock of the news.

In an honest conversation with former World No. 1 Andy Roddick, Swiatek revealed the pain she endured as she felt the tennis community judged her without knowing all the facts. 

"I was a total mess," she said, holding back tears. "When everything came out [publicly], I was basically crying for two weeks, couldn't practice, because I felt that tennis did this to me and that I'm in this place because of tennis. I felt like I was losing my integrity, like no one is going to believe me that I didn't do anything wrong, and that the whole world would turn their backs on me and that every accomplishment that I had would start to disappear."