In a frank interview on Polish television, Iga Swiatek admitted that having the financial means meant she was able to hire the best specialists to deal with her failed doping case.

The five-time Grand Slam winner tested positive for trimetazidine from a sample that was taken at the Cincinnati Open in August and she was informed about the failed test the following month.

The Pole was able to state her case to the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) in early October, but was forced to miss three tournaments in Asia as she was provisionally suspended.

On November 28 the ITIA announced that she bore “no significant fault or negligence” and she was given a one-month suspension. The 23-year-old, though, was allowed to return to action for the WTA Finals as she had already served most of her time in October.

Speaking to Anita Werner on Fakty po Faktach on TVN24, Swiatek was asked about how she felt when she heard the news.

“My reaction was very violent. It was a mixture of incomprehension and panic. There was a lot of crying,” she said.

“We get a notification by email and by text message when there is a problem or when we need to complete something in the documents. I opened the email and thought it was a notification that players automatically get when they have to do something.

“But this time it turned out that the email was much more serious. Generally, I wasn’t able to read it to the end, because I was already drenched in tears. My managers said that my reaction was as if someone had died or something serious had happened to my health. I’m glad I wasn’t alone, because I was able to hand them the phone and show them what happened.”

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But Swiatek was quick to hire the best in the business to clear her from any wrongdoing and she was forced to “pay for the entire process”.

“The fact that I have such a position has definitely made me gather people around me who, as soon as I found out about this situation, bent over backwards to help me,” she stated.

“A few hours after I found out, we all met and had a brainstorming session. I hired a lawyer from the [United] States who specialised in such cases.

“The fact that I had already earned a lot of money and could afford to spend it on my defence, without even blinking an eye, has definitely helped. I know that many athletes do not have such opportunities and I think this is something that may hold them back, because I actually paid for the entire process.”

So how much money did she spend to prove her innocence?

“I spent about $70,000 on a lawyer, €15,000 on expert opinions and tests,” she revealed, although she doesn’t remember the exact amounts.

“On top of that, there was also the loss of the financial prize for Cincinnati, but – to be honest – it didn’t matter to me. The most important thing was to prove my innocence.

“I give these amounts in order to make people realise the problems faced by athletes who don’t make as much money as I do on the court and play sports in which salaries are much lower.”