Iga Swiatek, the French Open champion, avoided a one-month suspension for a positive doping test by convincing the International Tennis Integrity Agency that it was not purposeful, the ITIA reported on Thursday. Swiatek, 23, from Poland, tested positive for the banned drug trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition testing in August 2024.
However, the ITIA agreed that it was caused by “the ingestion of a regulated non-prescription medication (melatonin), produced and sold in Poland, that the player had been taking for jet lag and sleep issues.”
“The offense was also not intentional… the individual’s level of fault was said to be at the very bottom of the acceptable levels for ‘No Severe Fault or Negligence’.”
Swiatek, who has five Grand Slam titles to her résumé, accepted the month-long sentence. She had her suspension provisionally jailed from September 22 to the fourth of October, skipping three incidents, which counted towards the sentence, with eight days remaining.
She will also forfeit prize money from the Ohio Open, the tournament that followed the test and saw her lose to world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final. that the player had been taking for jet lag and sleep issues.”