Why would Maria Sharapova dope?

MARIA SHARAPOVA’S demise will hit tennis like a freight train and it will be of little consolation to the game’s authorities that anti-doping measures, bolstered in recent years by the introduction of biological passports, have landed a big fish.

The evolution of the professional game in the past 20 years has seen a shift of emphasis from fine hand skills to a greater premium on strength and endurance.

Technique and touch are still necessities, but developments in racket and string technology, and slower court surfaces, have seen the physical side become more and more important.

Therefore the temptation to gain an edge in that area has never been more acute and the sport always looked vulnerable to a significant name being caught out.

Tennis has only just had to commission an independent review of match-fixing following the storm that hit it in Melbourne following the publication of a BBC-Buzzfeed report. At the time some maintained that doping was more of a clear and present danger to the sport’s integrity – certainly at the highest and most visible level – than the corrupt behaviour of players at lower-tier events in a small percentage of matches.

Roger Federer and Andy Murray have been at the forefront of calling for more to be done to deter those who might be tempted to dope.

Speak to people inside the professional game and you do not find many who think tennis has the problem on the scale as some other sports. It is about far more than power output.

But as one seasoned coach said recently, there are many who will push up against the boundaries of legality in the seeking of an advantage.

This is a disaster for women’s tennis, which will lose one of its biggest drawcards, now forever tainted.

A question remains. Why would control freak Sharapova take something outlawed in Melbourne, surely aware that testing is so vigorous at the grand slams? She may be many things. Stupid is not among them. – Daily Mail