Iga Swiatek: Being judged for drugs ban took joy out of tennis

Iga Swiatek never attended her school prom, let alone ballroom-dancing lessons, because of the demands of professional tennis. She worked to become a Wimbledon champion, not to wow onlookers at the champions’ ball. Fortunately Jannik Sinner, this year’s men’s winner, shared her anxiety and lack of experience.

“I was simply focused on not doing anything silly, worried not to trip over my dress, which was very long,” Swiatek, 24, tells The Times in an exclusive interview. “By the end of it, I was like, ‘May this moment last for ever.’ ”

Swiatek obliterated Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 — the first double bagel in the women’s final at SW19 since 1911 — in July to add Wimbledon to her US Open and four French Open titles. On her least-favoured surface, it was a triumph after the one-month ban she accepted towards the end of last year, following a positive test for trimetazidine.

She has always denied wrongdoing and was deemed to have had no significant fault or negligence, as she had suffered contamination through the use of sleep medication. The World Anti-Doping Agency did not challenge the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s ruling, but the ordeal lasted months and still haunts her. Now, whenever a drugs test comes up, she remembers how powerless she felt “with no influence over what happened in August 2024”.

Swiatek was the world No1 shortly before her suspension, falling behind Aryna Sabalenka and dropping further to No8. Bad as that was for a player of her pedigree, the stigma around the drugs ban and the treatment she received from spectators affected her.

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“There wasn’t a month where I wouldn’t be judged, and that translated on to the behaviour of audience members,” Swiatek says. “In Madrid, we had supporters shouting toward my box that I should fire somebody, so it really wasn’t easy.”

Fissette, left, who has previously worked with Halep, Kerber and Osaka, helped Swiatek conquer grass ROBERT PRANGE/GETTY

She played through the noise to reach the semi-finals at the Australian and French Opens before the shock victory at Wimbledon, which she hopes will silence the critics and prove that her team are up to the task.

“I would venture out on to the court in a sense trying to prove that everything is fine, instead of playing for myself and taking joy in tennis,” she says. “Reading that I’m falling apart, ‘diagnoses’ of depression, calls for my team to be fired, were all a bit too much.”

Swiatek already had five grand-slam titles when she started working with Wim Fissette, the Belgian former coach of Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber and Naomi Osaka, shortly before her ban. “Wim basically began working with me after I had three wonderful seasons, which isn’t a typical situation in a player-coach relationship,” she says. “Usually, you would employ a new coach when things aren’t going well.”

With the help of Fissette, and having established herself as the “Queen of Clay”, Swiatek cracked the lawns of the All England Club. She credits her ability to move on from the anxiety of her ban to Daria Abramowicz, the psychologist and confidante she first worked with in 2019. They would speak almost daily about the issues affecting Swiatek on court.

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“Failures on clay, including in Rome, where I totally underperformed, were a cold shower, allowing me to shake it off and understand that dwelling in the past is not the way forward,” she says. “I knew that I’m not thinking about tennis while on court the way I should, that my thoughts are chipping away at my confidence, making it so that I’m sometimes fighting myself, not the opponent.

“Before the Wimbledon final, I would fall asleep thinking about raising the trophy. She helped me with my expectations before tournaments.”

In trying to keep grounded and focused, Swiatek sought distraction through Lego and literature. “Reading is how I rest,” she says. “Often, during tournaments, that’s all I do.” Only when she is at home, between tournaments, does life get in the way of her quality time with a book.

Swiatek combines two of her loves – Lego and strawberries

It was not only on Centre Court that Swiatek made an impression at Wimbledon. She revealed that pasta with strawberries, common in Poland, was her favourite meal. “It’s the easiest dish you can make,” she says. “I’m not a good cook and it always comes just perfect, you know, which says something.

Pasta with strawberries and sour cream is presented at a restaurant in Konstancin-Jeziorna, near Warsaw REUTERS

“You cook the best pasta possible and you smash the strawberries — preferably the Wimbledon ones, but obviously you’re not going to be able to get them, so just the best strawberries you can get — smash them.

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“I like them pretty juicy because then this juice can really mix well with the yoghurt or sour cream, and you make this kind of sauce. Add it to the pasta.

“My dad puts some sugar on it, I prefer not to because I want to be fit, you know, as an athlete. And that’s it. It’s the easiest thing ever.”

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