Roddick defends Swiatek amid doping controversy: “This isn’t some ongoing thing”

Former US Open champion Andy Roddick has come to Iga Swiatek‘s defence amid the Pole’s doping controversy. Swiatek tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) in August this year.

The offence led ITIA to impose a one-month ban on Swiatek after the Pole proved the banned substance entered her body through melatonin — a non-prescription drug she was consuming to address her sleep issues.

While some have questioned ITIA’s decision and demanded harsher punishment on the world No 2, Roddick defended Swiatek citing the negative results of her dope tests conducted before and after the one that showed contamination.

“It’s just unfortunate for her,” he said in a recent episode of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast. “Obviously a negative test in Paris at the Olympics, negative tests in New York, so this isn’t some ongoing thing. It just sucks.”

The former world No 1 from America proceeded to call out the protesters:

“The dumbest people in our sport be like, ‘Oh doping!’ I have taken melatonin before, who’s to say ours is not contaminated? Are we going to continue to clutch pearls about one-one-billionth of a gram of something that didn’t have any performance enhancement? What are we trying to solve with the ITIA and then to WADA?

“What are we trying to solve for? Performance enhancement. If we’re seeing, and all the scientists are telling us in the independent tribunals, those types of people are saying, ‘It didn’t enhance performance at all.’ Then why do we care?”

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