Nick Kyrgios dismissing Iga Swiatek's 'excuse' in doping controversy called out by tennis insider

A tennis insider reacted to Nick Kyrgios' take on Iga Swiatek's doping controversy. The women's World No. 2 was handed a one-month suspension after testing positive for trimetazidine.

Swiatek said that she couldn't understand how the substance entered her system, but Kyrgios dismissed it as an "excuse".

"The excuse that we can all use is that we didn’t know. Simply didn’t know. Professionals at the highest level of sport can now just say “we didn’t know," the Aussie wrote.

Tennis insider Gill Gross reacted to Kyrgios comments and said that the Aussie's claim is "false". He said that Swiatek's appeal to her suspension was rightly rejected as saying that she didn't know was equivalent to guilt as per WADA.

"This claim is probably false. Iga said she didn’t know upon 1st appeal of the provisional suspension and was rejected (rightly so). Under WADA code, 'I don’t know' equals guilt. Those who avoid punishment do so precisely because they say 'I DO know, here’s what happened,'" Gross said.

News of Swiatek's suspension comes not long after she had helped Poland reach the semi-finals of the Billie Jean King Cup.

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Taylor Fritz and Naomi Osaka responds to Iga Swiatek's doping saga

Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka at US Open 2024 (Image Source: Getty)

Taylor Fritz and Naomi Osaka were among the players who reacted to Iga Swiatek's doping scandal. Fritz penned a long message, talking about the bias from the tennis public who support any story that suit their narrative.

"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," Fritz said.

Naomi Osaka showed her support for Swiatek by sending a heart emoji to the Pole's Instagram post about her doping ban.

Naomi Osaka's response to Iga Swiatek's story (Image Source: Instagram)

Swiatek is set to compete at the World Tennis League in Abu Dhabi, where she's a part of the Eagles alongside compatriot Hubert Hurkacz, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Paula Badosa. The Pole appeared in the last two editions of the exhibition event, being a part of eventual runners-up, the Kites in 2022. In 2023, she was a part of the Hawks along with Ruud, Hurkacz and Caroline Garcia.

Iga Swiatek will end the 2024 season as the World No. 2. She's 1046 points behind Aryna Sabalenka.