Iga Swiatek shares happy Christmas selfie as she strolls the streets of Poland

Iga Swiatek recently shared an all-smiles picture of herself as she enjoyed a day off in the buildup to this year's Christmas. Swiatek has already begun her preseason preparations, and will soon feature at the World Tennis League, an exhibition team tennis tournament in Abu Dhabi.

Swiatek is currently the World No. 2 after being knocked off her perch at the summit of the WTA Tour rankings by Aryna Sabalenka earlier this year. She posted a video and a series of pictures via her Instagram Stories on Thursday, December 12. While the video featured the former World No. 1 practicing on an indoor tennis court, the rest of the posts were about the Pole enjoying herself on the streets of Gdansk.

The first picture showed a glimpse of a beautifully decorated Christmas tree in front of Gdansk's Town Hall. In the second, Iga Swiatek could be seen smiling as she posed with the Town Hall in the background. The third picture was of the five-time Major winner holding what looked like fried sheep cheese, a popular street food delicacy in the Polish city. Swiatek captioned this post:

"Day off hehe"

Source: Instagram/Iga Swiatek

Source: Instagram/Iga Swiatek

Source: Instagram/Iga Swiatek

Swiatek's off-season has been marred by her doping controversy. While the Pole did accept and serve a one-month ban for testing positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) earlier this year, she has had to deal with fierce criticism. Prominent names in tennis such as Denis Shapovalov, Nick Kyrgios and Simona Halep have suggested that the punishment given to the Pole was far too lenient.

However, the Pole has maintained that her exposure to the prohibited substance was accidental, and stemmed from her use of a sleep-promoting medication contaminated by the drug. Recently, the former World No. 1 opened up on her struggles after she found out about her TMZ-positive test result.

"My reaction was very violent... a mixture of incomprehension and panic" - Iga Swiatek on her feelings after finding out that she had tested positive for TMZ

Iga Swiatek (Source: Getty)

Swiatek was recently featured as a guest on 'Fakty po Faktach', a Polish television program. Here, the Pole revealed her dire mental state after she came to know that she had tested positive for TMZ. The sample that tested positive for the banned substance was provided by Swiatek in August, and she was given the news of the test result a month later.

"My reaction was very violent. It was a mixture of incomprehension and panic. There was a lot of crying. My managers said that my reaction was as if someone had died or something serious had happened to their health," Swiatek said. (translated from Polish)

Apart from the one-month ban, Swiatek was also docked the ranking points and prize money she earned from her run to the semifinals of the 2024 Cincinnati Open.