The harsh statement of the former world number 1 regarding the sanction of Iga Swiatek after testing positive

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) it was made public yesterday Poland’s Iga Swiatek received a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition sample in August 2024, with the following statement:

“The player is temporarily suspended from September 22 to October 4, missing three tournaments, which count towards the penalty, so he has eight days left.”

Later, the tennis player himself confirmed, in another statement on his social networks, that was suspended for one month in symbolic agreement with the ITIA after it was shown that the positive for trimetazidine was due to a contaminated sample of melatonin in Cincinnati and that he has eight days left on his suspension after missing three matches on the Asian tour.

Reactions to this punishment are immediate. The first of them is the British Tara Moorewhich showed that the positive result he suffered was due to eating contaminated meat, but in spite of it He was temporarily separated from tennis for nineteen months. while studying his case. In the end, he was proven right, but he couldn’t make up for that lost time.

“It took me 19 months to ‘manage the changes in my team’. Don’t forget that mine was also contaminated and that two more people also tested positive and there were appeals. Why does no one take the corruption of the organizations that govern us seriously?”Moore exploded.

He didn’t want to keep quiet either. Romanian Simona Halepwho became world No. 1 in 2017 and winner of two Grand Slams, which in October 2022 He was sentenced to four years for consuming roxadustata banned substance, during the US Open, in August 2022, although a year later TAS reduced the penalty to nine months considering that the consumption of that substance, through a contaminated supplement, was accidental. on the part of the tennis player, although he recognized “a certain degree of negligence” on the part of the tennis player, justifying the retention of the penalty, albeit a lesser one.

In a cruel message on his Instagram accountHalep complained about the difference in treatment between ITIA tennis players:

“I sit and try to understand, but it is absolutely impossible for me to understand something like that. I wonder, why the big difference in treatment and judgment? I can not find and I don’t think there can be a logical answer. Can It’s just bad will on the part of ITIA, the organization that did absolutely everything to destroy me beyond the obvious.

He wanted with all his might to destroy the last years of my career, he wanted something I never thought I wanted.

I always believed in good, I believed in the fairness of this sport, I believed in goodness. It hurts, it hurts and maybe it will always be the injustice done against me. How is it possible that in similar cases that happened almost at the same time, AIT has completely different approaches to my detriment. How can I accept that the WTA and the players’ council do not want to give me back the classification that I deserve!!!!

I lost two years of my career, lost many sleepless nights, thoughts, anxiety, unanswered questions… but I got justice. It turned out to be contamination and the biological passport is just an invention.

And I have gained something else, my soul is clean! I feel disappointment, I feel sorrow, I feel frustration, but until now I don’t feel any anger.

I appreciate the unconditional support and love of the people I work with every day. THANK YOU! Within all the bad, I also had love because those who gave me love in those moments really knew me! That’s probably the biggest achievement!

As we know, the sun rises every morning for everyone, but it’s good to wake up with your soul at peace! And what I am, I’m happy and proud of who I am.”