“Makes me sad” – Fritz lambastes tennis public for biased response to Swiatek’s doping ban
“How are you not able to remove your own personal bias and form an educated and honest opinion for yourself?”
Taylor Fritz (Image Sport / Panoramic) | Iga Swiatek (Action Plus / Panoramic)
Iga Swiatek‘s doping saga has rattled the tennis community. It emerged on Thursday (November 28) that Swiatek was banned for a month by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after her sample tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition assessment in August 2024.
The world No 2 remained tight-lipped on the subject until recently and the revelation elicited contrasting responses from the tennis community. Among the notables reacting to the scandal was world No 4 Taylor Fritz, who took to X (formerly Twitter) lambasting the bias he discovered in the responses.
“What drives me crazy about these situations (in terms of going on X) is not the actual cases themselves,” Fritz posted. “It’s tough to know exactly what happened/all the details in all of these specific instances, so the speculation talk isn’t really my favorite thing to do.”
While the American refrained from commenting on the validity of the ITIA’s ruling, he decried the fandom that, in his opinion, has given rise to bigoted opinions on the matter.
It’s fine to have your own honest opinions but what I can’t fathom and what is so upsetting to see as a player, is the insane bias from the tennis public supporting whatever story pushes the agenda they want to be pushed.”
Taylor Fritz
“If it’s a rival of the player you support that tests positive then you are on team “let’s call them a doper/cheater/disgrace them as much as possible” and if it’s your fav player that it’s about then it’s “innocent no questions asked”. How are you not able to remove your own personal bias and form an educated and honest opinion for yourself? Even if as the player, you can prove your innocence (not saying anyone is or isn’t) people that support rival players/have bias against you will always blindly push the narrative you are a cheater, and that fact really makes me sad for all the true innocent players that have to go through this.”
Notably, Swiatek has become the second high-profile tennis player after world No 1 Jannik Sinner to fail dope tests in 2024.
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