Like Sabalenka, Coco Gauff is similarly on edge following the pair of high-profile anti-doping cases in 2024, Sinner twice testing positive for the clostebol while Swiatek tested positive for trimetazidine, both banned substances. Swiatek served a one-month ban that largely took place during the off-season while Sinner, who was initially given no ban before an appeal from WADA, will now be off court until May 4, in time to compete at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
“Me personally, I’m not on any supplements or vitamins,” said Gauff. “I only take Advil because I get scared to take medicine. But I definitely think the process needs to be a bit more up to date.
“I remember one time I was, like, sick, I didn’t know what I could take. I got a response two or three days later. At that point, don’t need it. But yeah, I definitely think the process needs to be more up to date when it comes to players knowing what we can and can’t take.”
Where Gauff deemed the process by which the International Tennis Integrity Agency determines contamination to be “thorough,” Jessica Pegula was more critical of the system as a whole—in particular WADA, an agency from whom the United States opted to withhold funding earlier this year. A member of the WTA Players Council, Pegula finds Sinner’s saga, one that was ultimately determined by a settlement with WADA, symptomatic of a larger problem with how anti-doping cases are resolved.
