MY DRUGS SHAME
Sharapova admits she has failed a dope test
Maria Sharapova dropped a bombshell last night when she admitted testing positive for a banned substance at January’s australian open.
The five-times Grand Slam champion made a statement at a Los angeles hotel confessing she had been caught out by the tennis anti-doping operation. The international Tennis Federation then announced that she will be provisionally suspended from March 12.
The world’s highest-earning sportswoman said she had been found to have taken meldonium, which was prohibited from January 1 this year. The revelation is catastrophic news for her, the sport and women’s tennis in particular.
‘i had legally been taking this for 10 years,’ said Sharapova. ‘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.’
Sharapova lost in the quarter-final to Serena Williams at the Australian Open and will have to pay back her prize money of £209,000 from the event, although that will be of l i ttle consequence to the multi-millionaire.
A statement from the ITF said Sharapova provided a sample 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 list of Prohibited Substances and Prohibited Methods, Ms Sharapova will be provisionally suspended with effect from 12 March, pending determination of the case.’
Sharapova conceded that she had received a notification from the International Tennis Federation on December 22 that the substance was being outlawed. She admitted that she did not f ollow an information link that was provided.
The 28-year- old faces a ban of several years, having been informed of the finding ‘a few days ago’. She said this was unrelated to her withdrawal from the Indian Wells event this week, as she is injured anyway.
‘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,’ insisted the Russian. ‘But on January 1 the r ules had changed and meldonium became a prohibited substance which I had not known.’
Sharapova claimed that she was initially given it in 2006 by her ‘family doctor’ due to health i ssues such as a magnesium deficiency and a genetic disposition towards diabetes. However, the substance which is mainly available in Eastern Europe, is said to have become a drug of choice for Russian athletes implicated in cheating in other sports.
This may be the end for Sharapova, who has won all four Grand Slams and transcended her sport without ever becoming the dominant tennis player of her era.
There was one set of rankings where she consistently came out on top: those produced by the likes of Forbes magazine that measure the overall earnings of female sports stars.
The combination of her glamorous looks, strong personality and natural business acumen, married with a huge tennis talent, helped make her a massive success as much off the court as on it. Those days now surely look over.
Sharapova’s official career prize money stands just above £25million. But her personal fortune is many times that, thanks to her voracious appetite for maximising her worth. Part of that has been the careful nurturing of her public image.
In recent years she has become most synonymous with her candy line Sugarpova, shamelessly ignoring the health lobby to successfully promote a high- end brand of sweets.
She once even discussed trying to enter the US Open under the assumed pseudonym of Sugarpova as part of a somewhat dubious marketing exercise.
None of her fortune, estimated to be well north of £100m, would have been possible without her endeavours on the court, which took root when she moved from Russia to the Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida, aged nine. That i nvolved a two- year MELDONIUM, the drug for which Maria Sharapova tested positive at the Australian Open, has been regarded for some time within athletics as a concern. Not least because, rather like the blood-boosting drug EPO, it is a drug capable of increasing the endurance capabilities, as well as increasing physical capabilities. The only difference is that, until two months ago, it was not on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list, having been added on January 1. WADA said that happened specifically because during tests to validate new equipment they repeatedly found evidence of its use by athletes, and suspected it was being used with the intention of enhancing performance. Abeba Aregawi, the 2013 women’s 1500m champion and an athlete who placed fifth in the 2012 Olympic 1500m final — a race growing in notoriety given the number of entrants who have now tested positive — was in the headlines only last week after testing for the substance. Another recent meldonium positive was 2015 Tokyo marathon winner Endeshaw Negesse. Indeed the drug is being linked with a number of positives now emerging in Ethiopian distance running. Reports claim Russian ice dancer Ekaterina Bobrova has also tested positive for meldonium, as have Ukrainian biathletes Olga Abramova and Artem Tyshchenko. Sharapova claims she has been on the medication for health reasons for more than 10 years. According to medical journals it is most widely used to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, angina and chronic heart failure. It is also reported to be beneficial for the treatment of seizures and alcohol intoxication. Interestingly the drug — which is manufactured in Latvia and used in Lithuania and Russia — has yet to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the USA, which is where Russian-born Sharapova resides. separation from her mother, so it was hardly surprising that she developedd a phenomenally tough persona that was as to serve her so well.
She rose to international prominence at 17 when she upset Serena Williams t o unexpectedly win t he 2004 Wimbledon title and one of the mysteries of her career was that she never got past the semi-finals thereafter.
Sharapova was to beat t he American again that summer, in her now hometown of Los Angeles where e tonight’s announcement was made. . But she has never beaten her since.
The utter dominance Williams has exercised over her in compiling a 19-2 record has come close to definingg the Russian’s career and denied the women’smen’s game the authentic rivalry it has cravedved in recent years.
One reason Serena is said to play so well against her, according to one close to the American, is a resentment that those with endorsement dollars in their pocket have always beaten a far more determined path to the tall European blonde.
It has helped focus the mind, as has a strong mutual dislike of each other, which was fuelled in part by being attracted to the same man — ATP Tour heart-throb Grigor Dimitrov. Sharapova was to win that one, at least.
Williams has been far from alone in disliking the statuesque Russian and many fans have found it hard to take to her because of her incessant grunt when hitting the ball. She could be torturously slow between points and there was also the practice of turning her back on her opponent between every point to focus on the next one.
Sharapova was a steady winner after the unlikely triumph at SW19, claiming the US Open two years later and the Australian Open in 2008. She has won 39 tour titles in all, interspersed by absences through injury. Tall and not a silky mover, her biggest career achievement was probably to twice win the French Open. She mastered the art of moving on the clay sufficiently to take the title in 2012 and 2014, despite having once described her navigation of the red dirt as being like a ‘cow on ice’.
These kind of one-liners flow easily from Sharapova, who is often charming and funny as well as being the owner of a sharp tongue. The ‘Ice Queen’ was, for example, asked at the 2012 Australian Open to respond to criticism of her grunting by vanquished opponent Agnieszka Radwanska and replied with exquisite timing: ‘Isn’t she back in Poland already?’
Sharapova has never sought to be part of any locker room sisterhood, describing it as a lonely place. ‘I think just because you’re in the same sport it doesn’t mean that you have to be friends with everyone,’ she once said.
However, she has given plenty to charity and always inspired loyalty among her tight team. Something has gone seriously wrong for the fallen superstar.
SHARAPOVA is one of only seven women to have won a career Grand Slam in the open era, which she completed with her 2012 French Open victory. She was preceded by Margaret Court (1970), Billie Jean King (1972), Chris Evert (1982), Martina Navratilova (1983), Steffi Graf (1988) and Serena
Williams (2003)
TENNIS superstar Maria Sharapova was suspended from the sport last night after revealing she failed a drugs test at the Australian Open in January.
Admitting her ‘huge mistake’, the former world number one said she had been taking meldonium legally for ten years after it was prescribed by her family doctor.
But on January 1 it was outlawed as a banned substance and the 28-year-old claimed she failed the test after not reacting to the change in rules.
The International Tennis Federation announced her provisional suspension would come into effect on March 12.
The Women’s Tennis Association has not announced a penalty but the fivetime Grand Slam winner could face a ban of at least a year.
Her highly lucrative sponsorship deals, which have contributed to her estimated £100million fortune, may also be under threat. Meldonium is used to treat angina and improve the quality of life and exercise capacity of patients with chronic heart failure. But it is said to have become a drug of choice for Russian athletes implicated in cheating in other sports. Miss Sharapova, who has been suffering from injury this year, told a press conference: ‘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.’
She added: ‘I don’t want to end my career this way and I really hope I will be given another chance to play this game.’
The Russian said she received a letter on December 22 from the World AntiDoping Agency informing her of the changes but claimed she had not examined them in detail.
Miss Sharapova said she was prescribed the drug for health issues, including sickness, magnesium deficiency and family history of diabetes. She claimed she knew the drug only by the name mildronate.
She is one of just ten women to complete the career Grand Slam, winning Wimbledon, the Australian Open, US Open and French Open.
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