Maria Sharapova
today said
she could not wait to return to tennis next April after the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced the former world number one's
two-year drugs ban by nine months.
Hailing one of the happiest days of her career, the Russian said she
had learned a lesson from the "tough months" behind her and hoped the
International Tennis Federation (ITF) and anti-doping authorities had
also.
"In so many ways, I feel like something I love was taken away from me
and it will feel really good to have it back," the 29-year-old
five-times grand slam champion said in a message to fans on her facebook
page.
"Tennis is my passion and I have missed it. I am counting the days until I can return to the court."
Sharapova was handed the original ban, backdated to start on Jan. 26,
2016, by the ITF following her positive test for the drug meldonium.
The arbitration panel ruled on Tuesday that she had committed an
anti-doping rule violation for which "she bore some degree of fault".
It added that the decision to reduce the ban concerned solely "the
degree of fault that can be imputed to the player for her failure to
make sure that the substance contained in a product that she had been
taking over a long period remained in compliance with the anti-doping
rules."
Sharapova had called the ITF's original ruling "unfairly harsh" as an
independent tribunal had found that she had not intentionally violated
anti-doping rules.
She admitted taking meldonium during the season's opening grand slam
in Melbourne but said she had been unaware that it had been banned by
the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Meldonium was added to WADA's list of banned substances at the start
of the year after mounting evidence that it boosted blood flow and
enhanced athletic performance.
"I have learned from this, and I hope the ITF has as well," said
Sharapova, adding that she had always taken responsibility for not
knowing the over-the-counter supplement she had taken for 10 years was
no longer allowed.
The player said other federations had been much better at notifying
their athletes of the rule change, especially in Eastern Europe where
meldonium, or mildronate, was 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," she added.
Shamil Tarpishev, president of the Russian tennis federation, welcomed the reduced ban.
"It's good, they reduced the ban", he told Russia's TASS news agency.
"We want her to play for the national team and win the next Olympics
for us."
Sponsor Head said justice had been served.
"We eagerly await her return to competitive tennis in April 2017 and
we are very proud to have stood by Maria for the right reasons
throughout these difficult and testing times," CEO Johan Eliasch said in
a statement.
