Swiatek talks about how she found out about her positive doping test: "I had a reaction.."

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Iga Swiatek is going through the worst moment of her career with her doping case confirmed. The Polish player tested positive for trimetazidine, a substance that contaminated the melatonin she takes to help her sleep at night. She has been suspended for a month, a sanction that has sparked controversy, although she has already proven her innocence to the ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency).

Despite this somewhat bleak ending, Iga Swiatek's season has been positive once again, especially on clay. She has won the WTA Doha, three Masters 1000, Roland Garros, and the bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. She has lost the top spot in the WTA rankings due to Aryna Sabalenka's consistency, but if this complex process does not affect her mentally on the court, we will surely see the best of Iga in 2025. In an interview with Polish television, she explained how she found out about the positive test.

- "Very violent" reaction upon learning the positive test

Iga was asked about her reaction upon learning she had tested positive in a doping control, to which she replied that she had a "very violent reaction. It was a mix of incomprehension and panic". The world's second-best racket was completely open to her country's audience: "I cried a lot. When players are notified of something, it's usually via email, so I thought it would be a routine notification, but it turned out to be much more serious".

"I couldn't finish reading the email because I was already covered in tears. The people with me said my reaction was as if someone had died... I'm glad I wasn't alone at that moment because I could show them what had happened".

- A battle to prove her innocence

Finally, she has been able to prove her innocence in a process that has been very tough on both a personal and economic level, as Swiatek claims to have hired top lawyers to be exonerated: "Having this financial position has enabled me to gather around me people who were eager to help me. I hired a lawyer from the United States who is a specialist in these types of cases."

"The fact that I had already earned a lot of money helped me and allowed me to spend it on my defense without hesitation. I know that many athletes do not have these opportunities and I believe this is something that can hold them back, because I paid for the entire process and spent around $90,000".

Iga Swiatek has stated publicly the amounts to raise awareness of the challenges that other athletes face who do not have the same comfortable financial situation as a top elite tennis player.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Swiatek habla de cómo se enteró de su positivo por dopaje: "Tuve una reacción..."