The Court of Arbitration (CAS) has reduced Maria Sharapova’s ban for doping to 15 months.
This means the Russian tennis star, will be free to return on April 26, 2017 and she is very likely to challenge for a third French Open title and a sixth Grand Slam next year.
Sharapova revealed in March this year, that she failed a drugs test at the Australian Open. The 28-year-old Russian tested positive for meldonium, which she has been taking since 2006 for health issues.
The former world number 1 was then banned for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), which she then appealed at CAS.
CAS upheld her plea but found she “bore some degree of fault, for which a sanction of 15 months is appropriate”.
Sharapova said in a Facebook statement afterwards: “I have learned from this, and I hope the ITF has as well. CAS concluded that “the Panel has determined it does not agree with many of the conclusions of the [ITF] Tribunal…”
The statement continued: “I have taken responsibility from the very beginning for not knowing that the over-the-counter supplement I had been taking for the last ten years was no longer allowed. But I also learned how much better other Federations were at notifying their athletes of the rule change, especially in Eastern Europe where Mildronate is commonly taken by millions of people.
“Now that this process is over, I hope the ITF and other relevant tennis anti-doping authorities will study what these other Federations did, so that no other tennis player will have to go through what I went through.”
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