Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova’s two-year-doping ban has been reduced to 15 months. The decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport means she will be able to return to the competition in April, in time for the French Open. Sharapova tested positive for meldonium at the Australian Open in January and received a two year ban from the International Tennis Federation. She appealed the decision in June.
Sharapova hailed the reduction of the ban as one of the “happiest days” of her life, immediately targeting a return to action in April 2017. Sharapova, a five time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 ranked player, openly admitted she had been taking meldonium for 10 years to help treat illnesses, a heart issue and a magnesium deficiency.
Sharapova was initially prescribed meldonium a year after winning Wimbledon as a 17-year-old by a Russian doctor in Moscow to boost her immune system. She burst onto the tennis scene by stealing hearts and that title at Wimbledon in 2004 before going on to clinch the US Open in 2006, the Australian Open in 2008 and the French Open in 2012 and 2014.
ITF had suspended the former World No 1 provisionally in early March, after she announced at a press conference that she had failed a doping test in January, before the Australian Open.
