World number two Iga Swiatek has been handed a one-month tennis suspension after testing positive for a banned substance, the International Tennis Integrity Agency has announced.
The 23-year-old tested positive for trimetazidine - which enhances the heart's ability to use glucose as fuel - in August, thereby incurring a provisional suspension from 12 September until 4 October.
Swiatek missed the Hana Bank Open, China Open and Wuhan Open - the latter two of which are WTA 1000 tournaments - during her provisional ban, claiming at the time that her absence was due to personal reasons.
Two separate 'A' and 'B' samples confirmed the presence of TMZ, although Swiatek appealed on September 22 and argued that contaminated non-prescription melatonin medicine was to blame for her positive test.
The ITIA has accepted that Swiatek ingested TMZ as a consequence of contaminated medication that she was using for jet leg and sleep issues, ruling that she did not intentionally take a banned substance.
Swiatek was therefore deemed to bear "No Significant Fault or Negligence" for the positive test, and she was offered a one-month suspension by the ITIA on Wednesday, which she has accepted.
Swiatek's positive test a "highly unusual instance" of medicine contamination
© Imago
Having already served most of her ban during her provisional suspension, Swiatek - who also forfeits her £125,429 prize money for reaching the Cincinnati Open semi-finals - will be free to return to tennis on December 4, 2024, meaning that she will not miss any more tournaments during the WTA's off-season.
"Once the source of the TMZ had been established, it became clear that this was a highly unusual instance of a contaminated product, which in Poland is a regulated medicine," a statement from ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse read.
"However, the product does not have the same designation globally, and the fact that a product is a regulated medication in one country cannot of itself be sufficient to avoid any level of fault. Taking into account the nature of the medication, and all the circumstances, it does place that fault at the lowest end of the scale.
"This case is an important reminder for tennis players of the strict liability nature of the World Anti-Doping Code and the importance of players carefully considering the use of supplements and medications. It is vital that appropriate due diligence takes place to minimise the risk of inadvertent ADRVs such as this.
"Help and support is available to players and their entourages, both directly through the ITIA, and through other organisations and schemes which check and test products."
Swiatek won her fifth Grand Slam title and third consecutive French Open crown at Roland-Garros this year, before being knocked out of the WTA Finals in the round-robin stage earlier this month.
Men's world number one Jannik Sinner also failed a doping test earlier in 2024 and was cleared by the ITIA, but the World-Anti Doping Association (WADA) has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and are seeking a ban of one to two years for the Italian.
The hearing into Sinner's case is scheduled to take place in early 2025.
