Every sports person goes through ups and downs in their respective careers. However, for Iga Swiatek, the peaks and troughs have been massive. While she dominated the WTA circuit for months, Swiatek also faced a dark chapter in her career that nearly took her away from the sport. Last year, the Pole tested positive for a banned substance, trimetazidine, and subsequently, received a one-month suspension from tennis. It came out of nowhere and was a massive shock to Swiatek, who was also struggling for form. During that period, she had dark thoughts about her career, which she opened up about in a recent interview.

Swiatek is currently in Montreal, where she is participating in the National Bank Open. It will be her first tournament after success at Wimbledon, and she talked about her doping controversy during a pre-tournament interview.

Explaining how she came to know about her failed doping test, Swiatek said, “I was at a photo shoot with my sponsor in Warsaw. We were in the middle of changing locations. I checked my email and saw I had received a message. I didn’t even read it because I immediately started crying. My agents, who were there with me, thought someone had died. I gave my manager my phone and she read everything. They were confused because no one knew what to do in such a situation.”

Further, she went on to add, “I called Maciek (her trainer). He already knew everything. I called Daria Abramowicz and we met during the shoot. I wasn’t sure if I should continue because my face was red from crying. I cried for about 40 minutes. But I couldn’t say anything and continued the shoot for another three hours. I have to admit, those were my best photos, so I must be a good actress.”

Despite the incident being the bottom-most point of her career, Swiatek never let her belief fade away. Although she had a difficult start to the season, Swiatek bounced back strongly and won a well-deserved Wimbledon title. Moreover, the doping controversy also helped Swiatek to learn to deal with tough times and emerge stronger.

Iga Swiatek learns a tough lesson

Failures are the stepping stones to success, it is often said. Similarly, dealing with tough times effectively is the path to better times ahead. Swiatek realized this early during her doping fiasco, and although she faced massive backlash from the tennis community, she never had her hope of bouncing back stronger fade away.

During an interview, she said, “I was scared that most people were going to turn their back on me… You can be at peace with yourself that you didn’t do anything wrong, but no one actually treats you like that… Especially the people that are kind of prosecuting you. Even when you’re telling the truth, you feel like they treat you like a liar.“

Nonetheless, Swiatek is back to her best now and will go all guns blazing in the Canadian Open. She will face Guo Hanyu in the round of 64 clash in Montreal.