"My agents saw me crying and thought someone in my family had died," Swiatek emotionally recalls her doping ordeal
World No. 3 Iga Swiatek has been one of the most consistent players on the WTA tour for many years now. A six-time Grand Slam champion, the 24-year-old Polish star held the world No. 1 ranking for 125 weeks since the start of her career.
However, Swiatek faced an unusual ordeal last year in Cincinnati when she tested positive for trimetazidine. Suspended for one month, she was able to compete at the WTA Finals in Riyadh before returning to action at the start of the season in Australia.
Appearing on the podcast *Served with Andy Roddick* recently, Swiatek revisited the moment she learned about her involvement in the doping case.
"I was doing a photoshoot for one of my sponsors in Warsaw. During the event, I saw that I had received an email, but I couldn’t even read it because I immediately started crying.
My agents, who were with me, saw me crying and instantly thought someone in my family had died. I handed my phone to my manager, and she read everything.
Everyone around me was confused because, of course, no one knows how to react in a situation like that. I called my fitness coach, but he already knew because my other agent had already informed him.
I also called Daria (her psychologist). I even asked if we should continue the photoshoot because my face was all red—I must have cried for 40 minutes. But I told myself I couldn’t explain to my sponsors what had just happened, so we kept going with the shoot, which lasted three hours.
I have to say, it was after learning about my doping case that I did my best poses—I must really be a good actress! That evening, my entire team, including my doctor, gathered, and we had our first call with a lawyer.
We decided to hire him right after that first phone conversation. Honestly, I was in a pitiful state. During the call, I was almost cracking jokes, being sarcastic because I wanted to make a good impression—that’s just how it goes sometimes. And when everyone left the room, I cried, and it went on for two weeks.
I couldn’t even train because I felt like I was in that situation because of tennis. I was convinced no one would believe me and that everyone would assume I had done something wrong.
I thought everyone would change their opinion about me, that my career was over, and that everything I had achieved up to that point would lose all its value. Sorry, I’m about to cry again… Why are we even talking about this?
My team helped me so much—they did everything to make the process feel logical. They explained every step I needed to take with the lawyer. We started testing all the supplements and medications I was taking and researching everything we could about them.
My friends didn’t understand what was happening. They saw I wasn’t playing even though I wasn’t injured. One of them guessed I might be in serious trouble. At some point, I had to tell them what happened, which wasn’t easy.
They told me I shouldn’t discuss the situation with anyone. I did talk to other athletes. Some understood, but others weren’t happy that all the details hadn’t been revealed during the tournament itself.
But if I had to publicly announce that I’d tested positive without being able to defend myself, I don’t know what would have happened to me. My team’s support was truly invaluable.
Everyone did everything to push me forward. Daria helped me tremendously because, for months, I kept overanalyzing the process, and she helped me see things as logically as possible.
I’m really grateful to be able to play tennis again and to focus more on what happens on the court rather than what happened to me last year," Swiatek shared with Andy Roddick.
Andy licks your behind exactly for this type of exposure he gets. Otherwise, he wouldn't get close to the top players.
But why are you even surprised you were treated the way you were? You only managed to worm yourself out of the hole because you have money and therefore power. You were even given the choice to break your suspension and come back playing before the end of the suspension.