The International Tennis Integrity Agency has started a trial program to offer financial, legal and well-being assistance to players who are the subject of doping or match-fixing investigations. The initiative begins immediately and will be reviewed after next year.

Under the trial, a player can receive up to $5,000 to have a medicine or supplement analysed by a laboratory accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency to check for contamination. The same amount is available to help identify possible sources of contaminated meat, a common explanation for failed doping tests in sport.

Sport Resolutions, the independent dispute resolution service that runs tribunals for anti-doping cases in tennis, will extend its free legal support to the point when a player first tests positive for a banned substance. Until now, that assistance was provided only after a player was formally charged.

Sporting Chance will offer six sessions of confidential well-being support to people under investigation for anti-corruption or anti-doping violations.

“We recognize the process can come at both a financial and emotional cost,” ITIA CEO Karen Moorhouse said.

“No player picks up a tennis racket as a child with any motivation other than playing the game,” she said. “Individuals find themselves in these situations for a lot of reasons, and so no matter what those reasons are, and where the case ends up, they also deserve someone to talk to.”

The ITIA played a role in two high-profile doping cases that began last year and resulted in short bans for players who have been ranked No. 1 and won multiple Grand Slam titles, Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek.

Sinner reached a deal with WADA to accept a three-month suspension that ended this April after that group appealed an exoneration from the ITIA based on what it determined was an accidental contamination by an anabolic steroid. Swiatek agreed to a one-month ban that was partly served during last off-season after she tested positive because of what she said was a contaminated non-prescription medication.

Karen Moorhouse, ITIA CEO

Lleyton Hewitt has been suspended for two weeks following an incident in which he pushed a volunteer anti-doping chaperone. The International Tennis Integrity Agency announced the sanction on Wednesday; it will run from Sept. 25 until Oct. 7.

The episode took place last November after Australia’s Davis Cup team lost in the semifinals to Italy. Hewitt, serving as Australia’s captain at the time, pushed a 60-year-old volunteer anti-doping chaperone following the defeat. He denied the charge, pleading self-defense. The ITIA reviewed video evidence, witness statements and interviews before referring the matter to an independent tribunal.

The tribunal upheld a charge of offensive conduct, finding that Hewitt’s actions “did not meet the requirements of self-defense” and that his behavior was “not reasonable and proportionate.” In addition to the two-week suspension, the 44-year-old former No. 1-ranked men’s tennis player has been fined around $20,000.

The ITIA set the suspension dates so the penalty would not be “unduly punitive” by affecting Hewitt’s Davis Cup responsibilities. During the suspension he will be barred from all tennis-related activities, including coaching, mentoring, playing, captaincy and other associated roles.

Australia is due to play Belgium on Sept. 13-14 in Sydney, with a place in the last eight of the Davis Cup Finals at stake. The scheduling of the sanction was announced with that forthcoming tie and Hewitt’s role in mind.

The case marks a disciplinary conclusion to an episode that began with post-match confrontation and moved through a formal review process involving video, witnesses and interviews before reaching an independent tribunal. The sanctions combine a short ban and a monetary penalty and restrict Hewitt from participating in official tennis duties for the period specified.

Iga Swiatek shared her emotional struggle after receiving news of a failed doping test due to a contaminated melatonin batch. The six-time Grand Slam champion revealed that the situation, which arose from a positive test for the banned substance trimetazidine, left her crying for two weeks and confused about her future in tennis.

Swiatek detailed the moment she discovered the test result during a sponsor photoshoot in Warsaw: “I went on my email and I saw that an email from this portal, and I thought it was just a reminder of my whereabouts or something. I didn’t even read it because I started crying, and my agents who were at the shoot thought that someone had died.”

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) accepted her explanation that the violation was unintentional, caused by contamination in a non-prescription melatonin supplement she used for jet lag and sleep issues. Following investigations and consultation with WADA-accredited laboratories, the ITIA imposed a one-month suspension and ruled the offense non-intentional.

Despite the resolution, Swiatek was forced to miss several tournaments, including important WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan. She recounted the impact: “When everything came out [publicly], I was basically crying for two weeks, couldn’t practice, because I felt that tennis did this to me and that I’m in this place because of tennis. I felt like I was losing my integrity, like no one is going to believe me that I didn’t do anything wrong and that the whole world would turn their backs on me and that every accomplishment that I had would start to disappear.”

Swiatek also highlighted the complexity of navigating such cases publicly, emphasizing the need for privacy until clear evidence is presented: “If anyone were to say straight away with this kind of case without the data or proof that you did nothing wrong, we would all be finished and they would hate us.”

Now recovered and prepared, Swiatek will return to competition at the Canadian Open, beginning with a matchup against world No. 33 Hanyu Guo.