Jessica Pegula conquered world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in a powerful performance propelling an inspired run to the US Open final.
This week, Pegula was back in New York City as Swiatek’s shadow emerged in a controversial case.
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Meeting about eight members of the media in a round table Q & A ahead of facing Emma Navarro at The Garden Cup in Madison Square Garden, Pegula was asked her reaction to Swiatek’s doping case.
Tonight, MSG Networks and Tennis Channel will be airing The Garden Cup live from Madison Square Garden.
Match-ups will feature four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz vs. 2023 US Open semifinalist Ben Shelton and US Open finalist Pegula vs. US Open semifinalist Emma Navarro. Coverage begins on MSG and TC at 7 p.m.
The five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek accepted a one-month ban after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) in an out-of-competition sample submitted on August 12th.
Pegula said while it’s important players trust the process in place, it’s also frustrating to see dramatically different consequences in doping cases.
“I don’t know, it seems like they investigated it and she had her reasoning,” Pegula told the media in a conference room at the Essex House on Central Park South. “I mean you have to trust that they’re doing their job—that they’re coming to the right conclusion.
“I think it’s just frustrating for people on the outside—or even for some players—that it just seems so hit or miss with how people get punished.
“I’ve been explained why it happens. But at the same time it’s like ‘Yeah, but how does this vary so deeply?’ And I think that can be frustrating.”
Still, world No. 7 Pegula, who has won three of her last five meetings vs. Swiatek, expressed confidence in the integrity of the reigning Roland Garros champion’s case.
“But how it was explained to me, it seems pretty cut and dried almost,” Pegula said. “And the explanation made sense.”
If the US Open finalist had been in Swiatek's shoes, she said she "wouldn't say no" to a one-month suspension either though "on the other side of it, you know, well that [Swiatek's suspension] is great timing."
"You're kind of wondering how that works when you're not competing how it doesn't seem to affect anything so it's really not much of a punishment.
"But I mean she did miss the Asian swing and that also may have hurt her chances for the year-end No. 1, which is obviously massive for her. Money-wise and sponsors and being able to have that No. 1 spot hurt too. So I'm sure she didn't want to miss those."
Swiatek, who passed a pair of doping tests both before and after her August 12th failed test, said she’d been taking Melatonin to treat sleep issues and testing showed the Melatonin she purchased in Poland was contaminated with TMZ. Swiatek said she was shocked by her positive test.
“It was a blow for me, I was shocked and this whole situation made me very anxious,” Swiatek said in a statement provided by her team. “At first I couldn’t understand how that was even possible and where it came from. It turns out testing revealed historically lowest levels of trimetazidine, a substance I’ve never heard about before.
"I don’t think I even knew it existed, I have never encountered it, nor did people around me. So I had a strong sense of injustice, and these first few weeks were really chaotic.”
Swiatek is the fourth former WTA world No. 1 to be hit with a doping suspension.
Back in 2007, Martina Hingis, former world No. 1 in singles and doubles, was banned for two years after trace amounts of cocaine metabolites were found in a urine sample she submitted.
Hingis denied knowingly ingesting cocaine, but said legal costs were too high to fight her two-year ban so she retired instead. Hall of Famer Hingis returned to tennis in 2013 and enjoyed a successful post-suspension career winning Grand Slam doubles and mixed doubles titles.
Former No. 1 Maria Sharapova, one of a few champions to complete the career Grand Slam, was hit with a two-year ban after testing positive for meldonium back in 2016. On appeal, that ban was reduced to 15 months and though Sharapova returned to competitive tennis she never reached the Grand Slam glory she attained before her ban.
Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep, won a shortened suspension from four years to nine months in a March ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which largely accepted the Romanian superstar’s claim that she suffered contamination from ingesting a supplement. Halep, who subsequently sued the supplement manufacturer, slammed a perceived double standard of the Swiatek ruling.
Halep says the disparity in decisions between her case and Swiatek shows a double standard supporting her bold claim that “they wanted to destroy the last years of my career.
"They really wanted to destroy the last years of my career, they wanted something that I could never have imagined that could be wanted,” Halep posted on Instagram.
“I always believed in good, I believed in the fairness of this sport, I believed in goodness. It was painful, it is painful and maybe it will always be painful the injustice that was done to me.
“How is it possible that in identical cases that happened around the same time, ITIA has completely different approaches to my detriment. How could I accept that the WTA and the players' council did not want to give me back the ranking I deserved?!”
Halep's suspension means both women who played the epic 2014 Roland Garros final that saw Sharapova out-duel Halep 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 on one of the hottest final days in French Open history, have both served doping suspensions.