On November 28, 2024, Iga Świątek gave the world shocking news. The Polish woman informed that she had been suspended for receiving a positive doping test result during the WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, and despite this, our star played in several tournaments at the end of the year. ” I can finally and that’s why I’m immediately sharing with you the hardest experience of my life ” – this is how our star began a moving recording that appeared on her Instagram.
“Over the past 2.5 months, I have submitted to the strict procedure of the ITIA agency, which confirmed my innocence. The only positive anti-doping test in my career with an incredibly low concentration of a prohibited substance that I had never heard of before, put everything I had worked for my whole life in question. My entire Team and I faced enormous stress and fear . Everything was meticulously explained, and I can return to what I love most with a clean slate and I know that I will be stronger than ever now. I leave you a long video and today I also feel relieved that it is over,” she said in the further part of it.
Kyrgios attacks Nadal. Idol Świątek in trouble
Świątek was suspended for a period of barely a month, which meant she lost the chance to defend her position as the leader of the WTA ranking during tournaments in Asia. There, our star was overtaken in this ranking by Aryna Sabalenka , who ultimately ended the year with the number one next to her name. The punishment of a month’s suspension did not please a large part of the tennis world, who considered it downright ridiculous, in the context of what other tennis players received, although it is known that each case is individual.
Nick Kyrgios and Simona Halep have been the most vocal in this matter. The Australian has become an informal leader of the “Anti-Christmas” movement . The tennis player, who is returning to the courts soon, has criticized the Pole in many places and was even removed from her team in the World Tennis League. The 29-year-old decided to go further, because he attacked the tennis sainthood that Rafael Nadal is considered to be. The Australian did this a dozen or so days after the great Spaniard ended his career.
– I couldn’t stand him. I hated him and despised him so much when I saw him walking nearby. He was a man who always motivated me. If I played with him, I would get up and try to play the best tennis I could. When I played with them, I didn’t feel the anger I felt towards Federer or Novak – said the controversial tennis player in an interview quoted by “tennis-infinity.com”.
And that wasn’t the end of it. “If I played against Rafa, everyone in our academies back home loved him, they were like, ‘he’s a really hard worker, he does this and that.’ I thought, ‘ I can’t stand this guy .’ I wanted to show people that you can just have fun, relax and beat people like that,” Kyrgios concluded. The Australian is back in action next year. He’s set to play at the Australian Open in front of his home fans.