Iga Swiatek tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine in August this year. After that, ITIA announced that she had received a one-month suspension as it was deemed she carried, “no-significant fault or negligence.” Swiatek later on expressed that the news came as a “blow” and “shock” to her and the whole ordeal made her “anxious.” Now, with the 2025 season knocking at the doors, Iga Swiatek needs to focus fully on a better start to her campaign next season. Recently, tennis legend, Andy Roddick shared some advice for the Polish superstar on how she needs to handle this situation when she returns to the Tour. What did he say?

Well, previously we saw Andy Roddick defending Iga Swiatek over her ban for failing a doping test as he criticized punishing players in cases where performance couldn’t have been enhanced. He said it’s pretty much “unfortunate” for Swiatek and added, “I can’t call it doping. It’s like taking a melatonin for jet lag at 2:30 in the morning in Cincy and having… think about how many things had to go wrong for Iga Swiatek to get popped for melatonin and something that was contaminated.” 

After missing out on her chances in the 2024 AO, Swiatek will be keen to get her hands on the title in 2025! What’s Roddick’s advice to her on dealing with the adversity amidst the doping saga? Well, he recently joined Christian’s Court for a short interview and he said, “There will certainly be things to deal with, she is going to get asked about it every time. It will be as if whoever has asked the question hasn’t been able to read her responses before, they are going to make her say it again and again. If I’m in her corner I would just say don’t have a moment where you are exhausted by it, just be patient with the process and do what you have to do. The more emotion you show, the more likely it is to be a story over and over again.“

He further added, “You know, she’s confident that she didn’t do anything wrong. I think the facts support her. So, hopefully, she just holds her head high and gets on with business.” In that same interview, Andy Roddick also advised Iga Swiatek to ask Jannik Sinner how he deals with doping criticisms. He said, “Jannik was able to separate what is going on outside of the court versus the job I have to do on a day-to-day basis. If I am Iga I am probably calling him and saying are there any hacks that have helped you deal with it the way you have?“

Previously we’ve seen players like Nick Kyrgios taking at jibe a both Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek on the doping controversies. Several others have also put a question mark on a probable ‘preferential treatment’, but what does Iga Swiatek have to say about all these controversies? 

Iga Swiatek shares her thoughts on getting compared with Jannik Sinner and Simona Halep’s case

Simona Halep tested positive for the banned substance, Roxadustat at the 2022 US Open and was initially suspended for 4 years. However, after a successful appeal, her suspension was reduced to 9 months and she returned to the tour in March this year. On the other hand, Jannik Sinner received an anti-doping sanction in August 2024, after testing positive for the banned substance Clostebol in two samples in March. Later on, ITIA adjudged that Sinner was not at fault for the substance entering his system and let him off with a monetary fine and ranking points penalty.

After seeing all these, Aussie star, Nick Kyrgios was among the first ones to take a jibe at both Sinner and Swiatek. As soon as Iga Swiatek’s case came to light he stated, “OUR SPORT IS COOKED.” Then in another instance, he took an indirect jibe at the Polish star by saying, “The excuse that we can all use is that we didn’t know. Simply didn’t know. Professionals at the highest level of sport can now just say ‘We didn’t know.’“ Then after seeing Andy Roddick’s support towards both these players, Kyrgios got engaged in a heated argument with the American.

Just a week ago, we saw Iga Swiatek stepping up to respond to those comparing her case with Jannik Sinner and Simona Halep. During an interview with Anita Werner in ‘Fakty po Faktach’ on TVN24, she said, “I know that people need to automatically compare such situations to others that have already happened, but the truth is that each of these cases is completely different. And the process of proving innocence will also be different.”

She further added, “It’s hard to compare me to Sinner, to Halep, to Kamil Majchrzak, because each of us is struggling with a different problem.” Now, the star is focusing on nothing but 2025 with the objective of getting back to original form. And she has everything to make it. What do you think, though?