Iga Swiatek’s coach Wim Fissettte has fired back at Nick Kyrgios and other repeated critics amid the ongoing fallout from the world No 2’s doping violation.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek has now completed a one-month suspension after testing positive for TMZ ahead of the Cincinnati Open in August 2024.
The 23-year-old was found to be of “no significant fault” for the violation after successfully proving that her melatonin medication had been contaminated before use.
Reaction to Swiatek’s case has understandably been divided with former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios among her outspoken critics.
Having also repeatedly criticised Jannik Sinner following news of his case emerging this summer, the Australian accused Sinner and Swiatek of trying to play the victim.
“Once you get caught, you can’t act like the victim,” said Kyrgios on the Nothing Major podcast.
“It’s nothing personal. What do I have that’s personal against Iga Swiatek? I have nothing personal against Iga. Everybody should be able to play on an equal footing.
“I repeat, once you get caught, you can’t act like the victim anymore. That’s what pisses me off even more. I’m like: ‘Wait a second… you’re using your team, right?’”
However, Swiatek has now been backed by coach Fissette, who previously worked with the likes of Kim Clijsters and Angelique Kerber.
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Speaking to Onet, he claimed that anyone who properly looked into the case would see that Swiatek was a victim of “bad luck”.
Fissette commented: “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.”
Having been provisionally suspended for 22 days before a successful appeal, Swiatek had just eight days of her ban left to serve once the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced their ruling.
That means that the world No 2 will be able to start the season as normal, with the Pole set to take a leading role for her nation at the United Cup, which starts on December 27th.
Swiatek won five WTA titles in 2024, including her fifth major at Roland Garros.
However, she failed to win a title following her triumph in Paris and lost the world No 1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka towards the end of the season.
That was in part due to missing both the China Open and Wuhan Open, where it later emerged she was serving her provisional suspension.
Swiatek’s partnership with Fissette began in the aftermath of her suspension with the two having only worked together at the WTA Finals and Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
