Polish legend Iga Świątek officially say a big yes to 14-year contract to…

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) today confirms that Iga Świątek, a 23-year-old tennis player from Poland, has accepted a one-month suspension under the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme, after testing positive for the prohibited substance trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition sample in August 2024.

The ITIA accepted that the positive test was caused by the contamination of a regulated non-prescription medication (melatonin), manufactured and sold in Poland that the player had been taking for jet lag and sleep issues, and that the violation was therefore not intentional. This followed interviews with the player and their entourage, investigations, and analysis from two WADA-accredited laboratories.

In relation to the Player’s level of fault, as the contaminated product was a regulated non-prescription medication in the player’s country of origin and purchase and considering all the circumstances of its use (and other contaminated product cases under the World Anti-Doping Code), the player’s level of fault was considered to be at the lowest end of the range for ‘No Significant Fault or Negligence’.

The ITIA therefore offered a one-month suspension to Świątek and on 27 November 2024, the player, currently ranked number two in women’s singles, formally admitted the ADRV and accepted the sanction. The player was provisionally suspended from 12 September until 4 October, missing three tournaments, which counts towards the sanction, leaving eight days remaining. In addition, the player also forfeits prize money from the Cincinnati Open, the tournament directly following the test.

The player provided an out-of-competition urine sample on 12 August 2024, which returned a positive test for TMZ at low levels.

The ITIA sent the player a pre-charge notice of an Anti-Doping Rule Violation on 12 September 2024 under Article 2.1 of the TADP (presence of a Prohibited Substance in a Player’s Sample) and/or Article 2.2 (Use of a Prohibited Substance without a valid Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE)).

The sample was split into A and B samples and laboratory analysis found that the A sample contained TMZ, which is prohibited under the TADP, in the category of Hormone and Metabolic Modulators (section S4 (4.4) of the 2024 Prohibited List). Subsequent analysis of the B sample confirmed the finding in the A sample.

TMZ is a non-Specified substance, and  Świątek did not possess a valid TUE for the substance. Findings for non-Specified substances carry a mandatory provisional suspension, which was imposed on 12 September 2024. This meant the player missed the following tournaments:

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