The Russian tennis player confirmed the shock news at a pre-arranged press conference held in Los Angeles on Monday
Russian professional tennis player, who is ranked world No. 6 by
the Women's Tennis Association, Maria Yuryevna Sharapova, dropped a huge
bombshell onto world tennis last night when she admitted she had tested
positive for a banned substance at January's Australian Open.
The five-times Grand Slam champion who applied her legendary calm
and determination, made a personal statement at a Los Angeles hotel
confessing she had been caught out by tennis's anti-doping operation.
The highest earning athlete in any female sport, said that she had
been found to have taken Mildronate or Meldonium, which was prohibited
from January 1 this year.
The International Tennis Federation has now confirmed the star will be provisionally suspended from the sport March 12.
At a press conference which many assumed would be to announce her
retirement after a spate of injuries, she delivered what is catastrophic
news for her, the sport and women's tennis in particular.
Reading
a written statement to a host of journalists at the press conference,
she said she took 'full responsibility' for the test failure
'I had legally been taking this for ten years,' said Sharapova,
who conceded that she had received a notification from the
International Tennis Federation on December 22 that it was being
outlawed. She admitted that she did not follow an information link that
was provided.
'I take responsibility for my professionalism in my job and I
made a big mistake. I know there will be consequences and I don't want
to end my career this way. I really hope I will be given another chance
to play tennis again. I can't blame anyone but myself. I have let my
fans down.
'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
Lost Angeles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet.'
Sharapova pictured in happier times with the French Open Trophy by the Eiffel Tower in Paris after winning the 2014 tournament
'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.'
Pictured with her 2004 Wimbledon trophy
The full statement from the ITF made clear Sharapova accepted the charge against her. It said;
'Following the statement made by Maria Sharapova in a press
conference today, the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP) can confirm
the following:
'On 26 January 2016, Ms Sharapova provided an anti-doping
sample to the TADP in association with her participation in the 2016
Australian Open.
'That sample was analysed by a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
accredited laboratory, which returned a positive for meldonium, which is
a prohibited substance under the WADA Code and, therefore also the
TADP.
'In accordance with Article 8.1.1 of the TADP, Ms Sharapova was
charged on 2 March with an Anti-Doping Rule Violation. Ms Sharapova has
accepted the finding of meldonium in her sample collected on 26
January.
'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.'
No comments:
Post a Comment