Poland's five-time major winner Iga Swiatek feared a far greater public backlash after she accepted a one-month suspension for failing a doping test, the world No. 2 said ahead of the United Cup in Australia.
The 23-year-old Swiatek tested positive in an out-of-competition sample in August for trimetazidine but the ITIA, which runs tennis's anti-doping program, accepted that it was caused by contamination of her sleep medication.
She was provisionally suspended from Sept. 12 until Oct. 4, missing three tournaments, and served the last eight days of the ban after playing at November's WTA Finals in Riyadh.
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