Coco Gauff says if she thinks Iga Swiatek’s tennis has been impacted by her doping case.
The Pole has endured a difficult few months since winning her fourth French Open title in June.
Excluding the bronze medal she won at the Paris Olympics in August, the 23-year-old has not won a title since and she lost the number one ranking.
But Swiatek’s worst moment of 2024 came when she tested positive for banned substance trimetazidine, which has received a divided response from those in the tennis world.
Does Coco Gauff think Iga Swiatek tennis has been impacted by her doping case?
Following her positive drug test Iga Swiatek was given a one-month suspension that lasted from September 12 to October 4, though she successfully appealed the verdict.
This forced Swiatek to miss three tournaments across the Asian swing, which cost her the number one ranking, as Aryna Sabalenka reached the top of the rankings after winning the Wuhan Open.
Coco Gauff has beaten Swiatek twice since she returned from her doping suspension, the American believes she did not take a banned substance intentionally and her on-court performances have not been impacted.
“No. I mean, I wouldn’t say she’s dropped her confidence,” Gauff told reporters. “For me, I don’t know her personally well, but just from the interactions that we’ve had, I definitely don’t think anything she did was intentional.
“I feel like I don’t think she was maybe — I mean, like I found out with the rest of the world. I don’t think she is not confident in herself. She’s playing great tennis.
“The match we played, I just happened to be a little better that day, maybe won a few points. It could have easily gone the other way.
“I think she’s fine. She’s still No. 2 in the world and playing amazing tennis. She’s always going to play amazing tennis, so yeah, I think she’ll be fine.”
Coco Gauff assesses her head-to-head rivalry with Iga Swiatek
Over the course of her first 11 matches against Iga Swiatek, Gauff had beaten Swiatek just once, and failed to win any sets against the Pole outside of the 2023 Cincinnati Masters.
That is no longer the case, as Gauff has won their last two meetings against the French Open champion in straight sets.
While there now seems to be a psychological shift for Gauff in her matchups with Swiatek, she acknowledges there is still plenty of work to do to turn the lopsided head-to-head ion her favour.
“In that situation, playing her, obviously especially now at this point, the head-to-head is still bad (smiling). It’s just one of those things, if you lose, whatever, it’s another one on the board. If you win, great,” Gauff said.
“Yeah, I just think of it like that. Instead before I think I put too much pressure, I lost to this person so many times. Honestly it doesn’t feel like we played each other that many times. I’m like, How many times are we going to see each other?
“I think it’s just one of those situations where I know I feel like what I have to do against her, but is it going to work that day. It’s kind of like how you execute or how she executes.”
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