Iga Swiatek felt 'awkward' using excuses to cover for one-month doping ban
Iga Swiatek felt 'awkward' using excuses to cover for one-month doping ban
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Iga Swiatek admitted she felt awkward about not being able to be honest regarding her absence from the tour. The Pole failed a doping test in August and served a one-month ban after it was accepted medication she was taking to combat jet lag was contaminated.
That news was not announced until November, when it emerged she had missed three tournaments in the autumn while serving a provisional ban, which she attributed at the time to personal reasons, fatigue and a change of coach. Following so soon after the announcement in August that men's world number one Jannik Sinner had failed two tests in March that were not made public at the time, it was another major blow to the sport's reputation.
Speaking ahead of the Australian Open, Swiatek said: "The first three weeks, I would say, were pretty chaotic. There was no way to have any answers to the questions. We just focused on finding the source. "But I've got to say, for sure it wasn't easy. It was probably the worst time in my life. And the fact that I had no control over this whole situation and I had no chance to avoid it, it made it even worse because I'm a control freak a little bit.
"Just having the feeling that everything that I kind of built can be taken away so quickly because of something you have no control over, it was pretty crazy for me and really abstract. "For the first two or three weeks, I just was focused on myself because I wasn't in a good place. I had trouble just being on court. I thought that tennis did this to me a little bit. I didn't really read stuff because the priority was me and my well-being.
