Coach Wim Fissette answers if he knew about Iga Swiatek’s failed doping test

Wim Fissette says Iga Swiatek was pretty fair and transparent when she reached out to him as the Pole didn’t hide that she was provisionally suspended and left the Belgian coach a chance to decide whether or not he wanted to work with her.

On October 17th, the world No. 2 announced through Instagram that she was hiring Naomi Osaka’s former long-time coach. Just before that happened, the Pole ended her partnership with Tomasz Wiktorowski while the Belgian and the Japanese also called time on their collaboration.

At the time, Swiatek was out of action due to “personal reasons.” On Thursday, the tennis community got to know what was exactly the reason for the 23-year-old missing the entire Asian swing as she was serving a provisional suspension after testing positive for a banned substance.

However, she was able to prove that she didn’t intend to dope and ultimately received just a one-month ban. And coach Fissette believed the whole time she was innocent.

“Trust is a foundation of good relationships in our team from the very beginning. Iga told me about the case and left me the decision about our cooperation. I have been observing her for a long time, her values, her work ethic, her standards. I was confident that she is innocent from the start, so it did not influence my decision about joining the team,” the coach told The National.