Tennis Analyst Calls Out World No. 2 Iga Swiatek For ‘Blatant Lie’ On Drug Test

Jason Goodall, the respected Tennis Channel analyst, is calling out the lack of transparency regarding failed drug tests in men’s and women’s tennis, and specifically called out world No. 2 Iga Swiatek for what he called “a blatant lie” about her situation. Speaking on Tennis Channel with coach Mark Petchey and former top-30 player Chris Eubanks, Goodall criticized Swiatek, the five-time major champion, for a lack of transparency. “We've had a couple of high-profile doping cases this season with Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, and the one thing that I didn’t like was the lack of transparency in those two cases,” Goodall said. “We only learned about Sinner's case before the start of the U.S. Open, though it occurred earlier in the season, in the spring. With Iga's case, we were told she was taking some time to work with her coach on different aspects of her game. That wasn’t the case. That was just a blatant lie.” Last month, Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication known as TMZ, the International Tennis Integrity Agency said. Swiatek failed an out-of-competition drug test in August. She formally admitted the anti-doping rule violation Nov. 28 and accepted her penalty. The ITIA accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and was caused by the contamination of a nonprescription medication, melatonin, that Swiatek was taking for issues with jet lag and sleeping. It was determined her level of fault was "at the lowest end of the range for no significant fault or negligence," the ITIA said. Swiatek had only eight days remaining on the punishment, after she was provisionally suspended from Sept. 12 to Oct. 4 and missed three tournaments. The remaining suspension was to be completed while there is no competition. She was cleared to return to play as Dec. 2, but is expected to make her return at the United Cup, the opening tournament of the 2025 season. She had said in September that she was missing the Korea Open, China Open and Wuhan Open for personal reasons. The Swiatek controversy came just months after Sinner, the men’s world No. 1, faced a similar situation, concealing a positive test result and avoiding suspension. B Sinner said the positive tests were the result of multiple uses of a spray employed by a “support team member” to “treat a wound” suffered by the team member. “Ridiculous — whether it was accidental or planned,” Nick Kyrgios, the former Wimbledon finalist who works as a tennis analyst for the BBC and has also done work for Tennis Channel, said in August on social media. “You get tested twice with a banned (steroid) substance...you should be gone for 2 years. Your performance was enhanced. Massage cream.... Yeah Nice” Goodall argued that both cases should have been publicly disclosed immediately and that both the ATP and WTA should take responsibility for clarifying these issues: “We didn’t know she was serving a soft suspension,” he said of Swiatek. “Why wouldn’t we know that? Just tell the truth. If a player’s tested positive, like Sinner, with both the A and B samples, we should know the facts of the case. Why don’t we know that? “And then, if there are questions to be answered, who are the spokespeople for the ATP and WTA? Who can we ask? I want more transparency; I don’t want any soft, secret suspensions.”