MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) 鈥� one-month suspension for failing a drug test will not be appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency because her explanation 鈥渋s plausible,鈥� WADA announced on Monday.
WADA released its decision just minutes after Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1-ranked women's tennis player, sealed a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Eva Lys to reach the quarterfinals.
鈥淲ell, for sure, I鈥檓 just satisfied that I can get closure, kind of,鈥� Swiatek said, 鈥渁nd I can just move on and finish this whole process, because I just want to play tennis and focus on the tournament.鈥�
Unlike the Swiatek case, WADA did appeal the exoneration of current men's No. 1 and a hearing is scheduled to be heard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, in April.
Sinner was not suspended because the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) determined he was not negligent for two positive tests for an anabolic steroid in March.
The resolution of Swiatek鈥檚 case was made public by the ITIA in late November. She already had been sidelined provisionally, missing three tournaments in October, and finished her ban during the sport's offseason.
鈥淲ADA sought advice from external legal counsel, who considered that the athlete鈥檚 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,鈥� Monday鈥檚 statement from WADA said.
Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart medication known as TMZ.
failed an out-of-competition drug test in August, and the ITIA accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional, and caused by the contamination of the non-prescription medication melatonin that she was taking for issues with jet lag and sleeping.
The ITIA said it determined her level of fault was 鈥渁t the lowest end of the range for no significant fault or negligence.鈥�
That 鈥渟cenario,鈥� WADA said Monday, 鈥渋s plausible and that there would be no scientific grounds to challenge it.鈥�
On the eve of the Australian Open, Swiatek described the initial period she was sidelined, which she chalked up at the time to personal reasons, as 鈥減retty chaotic鈥� and said, 鈥淔or sure, it wasn鈥檛 easy; it was probably, like, the worst time in my life.鈥�
鈥淚t got pretty awkward. Like, we chose for the first tournament to say 鈥榩ersonal reasons鈥� because we honestly thought the suspension is going to be lifted soon," Swiatek said in Melbourne. 鈥淔rom 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.鈥�
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AP tennis:
Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press
