Maria Sharapova has two-year doping ban reduced

MARIA SHARAPOVA’S drug ban has been cut to just 15 months.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled that the two-year suspension imposed onSharapova by the tennis authorities for taking meldonium was too harsh.

The former Wimbledon champion will now be free to return to the sport at the end of April – in time for the French Open.

Sharapova appealed to CAS after an independent tribunal set up by International Tennis Federation gave her a two-year ban in June.

She had tested positive for meldonium, a heart drug, during the Australian Open in January and again shortly afterwards.

Sharapova said she had been taking meldonium, under the brand name Mildronate, for more than a decade to treat an irregular heartbeat, pre-symptoms of diabetes and other conditions.

On the decision, Sharapova said: “I’ve gone from one of the toughest days of my career last March when I learned about my suspension to now, one of my happiest days, as I found out I can return to tennis in April.

“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. Tennis is my passion and I have missed it. I am counting the days until I can return to the court.

“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…”

“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.”

Sharapova was one of a large number of athletes from Russia and the former Eastern Bloc to test positive for meldonium after it was placed on the list of banned substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency on January 1.

Sharapova was provisionally suspended in March and at a well stage-managed press conference in March, admitted taking the substance but said she had been unaware it had been placed on the banned list.

The ITF tribunal revealed a staggering lack of professionalism from Sharapova and her manager, Max Eisenbud.

But she claimed she was not guilty of “significant fault” under tennis’ anti-doping rules.

And the three-strong CAS panel decided two years was too long a ban.

A CAS statement said: “The Panel found that Ms Sharapova committed an anti-doping rule violation and that while it was with “no significant fault”, she bore some degree of fault, for which a sanction of fifteen months is appropriate.

“The Panel wishes to point out that the case it heard, and the award it has rendered, was only about 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.”