Sharapova’s career ‘over’ after two-year doping ban

Maria Sharapova has been banned for two years by the International Tennis Federation for using a prohibited drug. The ruling, announced Wednesday, can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, reports the AP.

“While the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the anti-doping rules, I can not accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension”.

The ITF said Sharapova tested positive for meldonium in an out-of competition test on February 2, as well as following her Australian Open quarter-final defeat by Serena Williams on January 26.

Sharapova has regularly battled back from serious injuries during her glittering career.

The tribunal found that Sharapova had taken Mildronate before each of her five matches at this year’s Australian Open where she lost to Serena Williams.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) said in April that scientists were unsure how long meldonium stayed in the system, and suggested athletes who tested positive before 1 March could avoid bans, provided they had stopped taking it before 1 January.

Meldonium, which is commonly used to treat heart and angina problems, was added to the list of banned substances for players in 2016 – but Sharapova maintained she had been unaware the rules had changed.

“Today with their decision of a two year suspension, the ITF tribunal unanimously concluded that what I did was not intentional”.

The drug was recently added to the list of banned substances.

The report also stated that Sharapova had not made her use of Mildronate known to most of her team, including her coach, her trainer, her physio and her nutrionist, nor any of the doctors made available to players by the WTA. “HEAD will continue to support Miss Sharapova”.

The tribunal wrote: “It may be that she genuinely believed that Mildronate had some general beneficial effect on her health but the manner in which the medication was taken, its concealment from the anti-doping authorities, her failure to disclose it even to her own team, and the lack of any medical justification must inevitably lead to the conclusion that she took Mildronate for the objective of enhancing her performance”.

But the federation said the Russian was “the sole author of her own misfortune”, as she had “failed to take any steps to check whether continued use of the medicine was permissible”. It treated both results as a single anti-doping violation.