WADA's announcement came shortly after Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1, achieved a decisive 6-0, 6-1 victory over Eva Lys, advancing to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
“Well, for sure, I’m just satisfied that I can get closure, kind of,” Swiatek said, “and I can just move on and finish this whole process, because I just want to play tennis and focus on the tournament.”
In contrast to Swiatek's situation, WADA has chosen to appeal the decision to clear current men's No. 1 Jannik Sinner, with a hearing set for April at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Sinner was not suspended after the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) concluded that he was not at fault for two positive tests for an anabolic steroid in March.
The ITIA publicly disclosed the outcome of Swiatek’s case in late November. She had already been provisionally suspended, missing three tournaments in October, and completed her ban during the offseason.
“WADA sought advice from external legal counsel, who considered that the athlete’s contamination explanation was well evidenced, that the ITIA decision was compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, and that there was no reasonable basis to appeal it to the CAS,” Monday’s statement from WADA said.
Swiatek has accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for trimetazidine, a prohibited heart medication commonly referred to as TMZ.
The positive result stemmed from an out-of-competition drug test conducted in August. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) acknowledged her assertion that the result was unintentional, attributing it to contamination from a non-prescription melatonin supplement she was using to address jet lag and sleep difficulties.
That “scenario,” WADA said Monday, “is plausible and that there would be no scientific grounds to challenge it.”
WADA stated on Monday that this scenario is plausible and that there are no scientific grounds to dispute it.
On the eve of the Australian Open, Swiatek reflected on the initial period of her suspension, which she had initially attributed to personal reasons, describing it as “pretty chaotic.” She remarked, “For sure, it wasn’t easy; it was probably, like, the worst time in my life.”
“It got pretty awkward. Like, we chose for the first tournament to say ‘personal reasons’ because we honestly thought the suspension is going to be lifted soon,” Swiatek said in Melbourne. “From the beginning it was obvious that something was contaminated because the level of this substance in my urine was so low that it had to be contamination.”