MARIA SHARAPOVA, the five-time grand slam winner, has announced she failed a drugs test at this year's Australian Open.
The 28-year-old Russian made the shocking revelation at a pre-arranged press conference in Los Angeles, on Monday.
Sharapova, who has played in only one tournament this year, losing to Serena Williams in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, said she received a letter from the International Tennis Federation informing her of the failed test for meldonium – a substance which has been on the banned list since January 1, 2016.
Sharapova, who took "full responsibility" for the failed test, said she has been taking the drug legally since the age of 16, but did not realise it had subsequently been banned.
She will be provisionally suspended with effect from March 12, the ITF has announced.
"I received a letter from the ITF that I failed a drugs test at the Australian Open," said Sharapova. "I take full responsibility for it.
"For the past 10 years I have been given a medicine called mildronate by my family doctor and a few days ago after I received the ITF letter I found out that it also has another name of meldonium which I did not know.
"It is very important for you to understand that for 10 years this medicine was not on WADA's banned list and I had legally been taking the medicine for the past 10 years.
"But on January 1st the rules had changed and meldonium became a prohibited substance which I had not known."
Reading from a written statement that lasted for nearly three minutes, Sharapova said she was given the substance by her family doctor to deal with sickness, a deficiency in magnesium, and her family's history of diabetes.
"I was given this medicine by my doctor for several health issues that I was having in 2006," Sharapova continued.
"Throughout my long career I have been very open and honest about many things and I take great responsibility and professionalism in my job every single day and I made a huge mistake.
"I let my fans down. I let the sport down I have been playing since the age of four and I love so deeply.
"I know with this I face consequences and I don't want to end my career this way and I really hope I will be given another chance to play this game.
"I know many of you thought I was retiring but if I was ever going to announce my retirement it would probably not be in a downtown Los Angeles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet."
The world No.7 has been struggling with an arm injury this year and pulled out of the upcoming Indian Wells tournament due to the injury.
The Russian added that she received a letter from WADA in December to inform her of the prohibited substances for 2016, but admitted she did not look at the list.
"It made me healthy and that is why I continued to take it," Sharapova said of the banned substance after taking a small number of questions from the floor.
"I am still working through my injury and that is the reason I withdrew from Palm Springs, because I have still not healed my injury.
Asked if she knew what the consequences of her failed test may be, Sharapova added: "I do not. This is very new for me, I just received the letter a few days ago and I will be working with the ITF."
A statement from the ITF said Sharapova provided a sample during the Australian Open on January 26, and that she was charged with an anti-doping violation on March 2 after the sample tested positive for meldonium.
The statement added: "As meldonium is a non-specified substance under the WADA (and, therefore, TADP) list of Prohibited Substances and Prohibited Methods, Ms Sharapova will be provisionally suspended with effect from 12 March, pending determination of the case."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel