The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Sharapova says suspicion will linger on return
Russian getting ready for next month’s return to competition following doping ban
Maria Sharapova accepts she will have a cloud of suspicion hanging over her when she returns to tennis next month.
The five-time Grand Slam champion is serving a 15-month doping ban after testing positive for cardiac drug meldonium at the Australian Open in 2016.
Sharapova’s suspension runs out on April 26. She plays her first match the same day, having been given a wild card into the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
Players’ reaction to her impending return has been largely lukewarm.
The awarding of a wild card for a tournament that begins while she is still banned has been controversial, with Caroline Wozniacki branding it as “disrespectful”.
The French Open and Wimbledon are under pressure over whether to award entry to their former champion.
Sharapova admitted at a press conference last March that she took meldonium, insisting her only mistake was not realising the drug had been added to the banned list at the start of 2016.
An initial two-year ban was reduced to 15 months on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which concluded she had not intended to cheat.
But, asked if she expected the suspicion to linger for the rest of her career, Sharapova told Vogue: “I think if I was trying to hide something, I don’t think I would come out to the world and say I was taking a drug for 10 years.
“If I was really trying to take the easy way out, that’s not a very smart thing to do. But the answer to your question is, absolutely.”
As well as Stuttgart, Sharapova has also been given wild cards into Madrid and Rome, the two biggest warm-up events for the French Open.
There will be no easing herself back in, therefore, and Sharapova appears determined to hit the ground running.
The former world No 1, who is now unranked, said: “I have expectations of myself because I know what I’m capable of. Will I have those standards? Of course. Will I have to be patient? It’s not my greatest strength.”