Maria Sharapova, five time Grand Slammer winner, was hit with a two year sporting ban by the International Tennis Federation after testing positive for meldonium, a performance enhancing drug, at the 2016 Australian Open.
The 29-year-old claimed she’d been using the drugs to combat a magnesium deficiency and a hereditary risk of diabetes. The standard ban for unlawful sporting medonium use is four years but Sharapova was only hit with two, claiming she’d been unaware it was banned and that she’d not used it for performance enhancing means.
Now, that ban has been decreased yet again to just one year, three months. The Russian tennis star said, “I am counting the days until I can return…Tennis is my passion and I have missed it.”
The Cas panel, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, said Sharapova was at fault for failing to properly check the list of banned substances. Sharapova has a number of modelling contracts and endorsements, all of which have been affected by the ban. Nike and Tag Heuer have both dropped relationships with her whilst Head Tennis have commended her, saying they are proud to have stood with Sharapova during the crisis.
