‘I was a total mess’ — Iga Swiatek speaks up about her failed doping test

Iga Swiatek admitted that failing a doping test was a terrible and confusing experience. In November 2024, the athlete got an email stating that she had tested positive for a banned substance called trimetazidine. 

Swiatek then accepted a one-month suspension from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) and clarified that the positive test was from a contaminated batch of her non-prescription melatonin, which she took to help her with jet lag and her sleep condition. 

Eventually, the ITIA determined that the violation was unintentional, following interviews from Swiatek and her team, as well as investigations and analysis of samples in accredited laboratories. With this unfortunate event, Swiatek missed three tournaments, including the WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan. 

In a podcast, Swiatek shared her experience when she first got the news: “It was pretty terrible… I was in a photoshoot with my sponsor in Warsaw, and I was in the middle of it. We were just kind of changing locations. I went on my email and I saw that I got an email from this portal, and I thought it was just a reminder of my whereabouts or something. I didn’t even read it because I started crying, and my agents, who were at my shoot, thought that someone died. I gave my manager the phone and she read everything. They were also pretty confused because obviously, no one knows what to do in a situation like that.” 

The experience really took a toll on Swiatek, but she faced the results even when she was confused and was being a ‘mess’. She stated: “We met in the evening with the whole team, with my doctor, and we first called with a lawyer. I hired him over the phone basically. It was all very confusing… Honestly, I was a total mess. I was basically joking, was being sarcastic, because I just had to do something to keep it together. When everything came out, 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.”  

She continued: “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.” 

Despite this major setback, Swiatek redeemed herself by winning this year’s Wimbledon title and became the first Polish athlete to win a singles title at Wimbledon. Furthermore, she is the first woman to win her first six Grand Slam finals since Monica Seles in 1992. 

At Wimbledon, Swiatek defeated Amanda Anisimova with a final scoreline of 6-0, 6-0 in under an hour. With her win, she declared: “Being Wimbledon champion sounds amazing and pretty surreal. I’m appreciating every minute. I’m proud of myself because who would have expected that?” 

Read more about Iga Swiatek’s 2025 Wimbledon win here.