Iga Swiatek’s coach Wim Fissette slammed Simona Halep and Nick Kyrgios as “negative people” and also suggested that some should read to the fullest what the ITIA said in their report about the case.
The Romanian, who was banned for around a year and a half before winning her appeal in front of a CAS judge, didn’t take well when the Jannik Sinner doping news dropped in August. After it was revealed that the Pole also failed a doping test, the two-time Grand Slam champion again started calling out the ITIA and claiming that she was treated differently by them.
When it comes to Kyrgios, he has been one of the harshest critics of Sinner. While Swiatek was provisionally suspended for short time and ultimately received a one-month ban, the Australian still thought the ITIA was light on the 23-year-old and that her explanation was easily accepted.
Addressing that, Fissette – who joined the Pole’s team in October – highlighted that the ITIA issued a very detailed report in which they underlined that it was caused by the contamination of a regulated non-prescription melatonin medication and that it was accepted that the five-time Grand Slam winner didn’t knowingly or intentionally take a banned substance.
“There will always be people who will be negative, but I think that anyone who has read all the documents that Iga has provided and shown to the whole world, sees what happened. And should understand that it was just bad luck. It can happen to any player. I think that those people who are negative about the case, we should ask a few questions about Iga’s report and thus check whether they have actually read it,” Fissette told Polish publication Onet.
Wim Fissette and Iga Swiatek© Wim Fissette/Instagram – Fair Use
How Halep, Kyrgios reacted to the Swiatek news?
Following the news, the 33-year-old Romanian blasted the ITIA in an Instagram post by accusing them of being unfair toward her and also claiming that they were handling some doping cases differently.
A couple of days later, the former world No. 1 gave an interview to The Telegraph, where she further explained why she believed that she received a different and an unfair treatment. While she didn’t mentioned Swiatek by name, it was perfectly clear about which player she was talking about.
“The woman player – I don’t want to give name, you know about who I’m talking about – she had the three-week suspension, then she played two events, and then she gets again suspension. What is this? I mean, I don’t understand. So I feel it is not fair,” Halep said.
Meanwhile, Kyrgios reacted to the Swiatek news by writing on X: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.” In another post, he added: “OUR SPORT IS COOKED.” Also, he sarcastically remarked that top players only need to use the I didn’t know excuse. “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.’”
He took another subtle shot at the Pole a couple of days ago.
“Feels good getting these consecutive days training in the bank man… Wrist reconstruction and back out here… Blessed… Without failing any drug tests (smiling and praying emojis). Be proud Kygs doing it the right way,” the 2022 Wimbledon finalist wrote on X last week.
How Swiatek responded to the Halep comments?
During an appearance on a Polish television, the four-time French Open champion pretty much said that comparing doping cases is a nonsense because each one is different to the other. And that meant that she didn’t think there was a reason for the Romanian to be using her case in the context she used.
“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. It’s hard to compare me to Sinner, to Halep, to Kamil Majchrzak, because each of us is struggling with a different problem,” Swiatek said during her appearance on TVN24.
“I think this is a question more for ITIA than for the player. My fate, just like the fates of others, was in their hands and they decide how each case will turn out, I trust that this process is objective, that everything is done according to the regulations and no one judges a player this way or that way because of his position. But whether it is really like that, I think this is a question for ITIA.”
Tennis World USA