(Reuters) – Poland’s five-times major winner Iga Swiatek feared a far greater public backlash after she accepted a one-month suspension for failing a doping test, the world number two said ahead of the United Cup in Australia.
The 23-year-old Swiatek tested positive in an out-of-competition sample in August for trimetazidine but the ITIA, which runs tennis’s anti-doping programme, accepted that it was caused by contamination of her sleep medication.
She was provisionally suspended from Sept. 12 until Oct. 4, missing three tournaments, and served the last eight days of the ban after playing at November’s WTA Finals in Riyadh.
Swiatek had won five titles this season, including a third straight French Open, prior to the suspension.
“The reaction in Poland basically – because this is mostly what I read – has been pretty supportive. I really, really appreciate that because even, you know, when I missed the China swing and nobody knew why it wasn’t so easy,” she said.
Swiatek had pulled out of the China Open for personal reasons and missed the Canadian and Korea Opens citing fatigue.
“After the information about my case was released, you know, I was scared that most of the people are going to turn their back on me but I felt the support and it’s great,” she added.
Swiatek’s case marked another embarrassing episode for the sport this year after the top men’s player, Italian Jannik Sinner, failed two drug tests in March.
He was cleared of wrongdoing by an independent tribunal that accepted his explanation of unintentional contamination but news of the tests broke days before the U.S. Open, casting an unwelcome spotlight on the incident.
Swiatek conceded the reaction had not been all positive, as some players have alleged a double standard in how top players’ doping cases are handled compared with lower-ranked competitors.
“Obviously there are going to be some negative comments and you’re not going to avoid that,” said Swiatek, who lost her top ranking during the suspension.
“That’s, you know, something that is always going to kind of follow us no matter what happens in our lives.”
The United Cup, an 18-nation mixed teams event being staged in Perth and Sydney, runs from Friday to Jan. 5.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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