“Ja już brałem melatoninę”, Andy Roddick broni Igę Świątek, twierdząc, że jej sytuacja nie jest “sprawą dopingową”.

Andy Roddick defended Iga Swiatek amidst the doping row. Roddick, like many of Swiatek’s supporters, is not ready to consider that the Pole’s situation should fall under ‘doping’, and claimed that a tiny amount of a performance enhancer does not affect a player.

Swiatek became the second high-profile tennis player, after men’s World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, to fail a drug test. The test came out positive just three days before the Cincinnati Masters and she was provisionally suspended for three weeks, missing three tournaments on the Asian swing.

Trimetazidine was found in her sample because she was consuming melatonin to deal with jet lag and sleep issues. She was handed a one-month ban which was lifted on December 4.

Roddick, who has taken melatonin before, said ‘it sucks’ when players have to deal with criticism. He questioned the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) as to why players were punished for failing a test even when performance enhancement couldn’t have been possible.