The International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Wednesday confirmed former world number one and five-time grand slam victor Sharapova will serve the backdated suspension, having been provisionally banned in March following her positive test for meldonium in Melbourne.
Advertisement
The bottled water giant said in a statement: “The ITF tribunal concluded that Maria Sharapova’s contravention was not intentional”.
The International Tennis federation (ITF) tribunal declared that she unknowingly committed a doping breach.
“Maria has always made her position clear, has apologized for her mistake and is now appealing the length of the ban,”Nike (NKE) said in a statement”.
At the time the failed test was announced in March, sportswear giant Nike said it was putting its eight-year, U.S. dollars 70million deal on hold.
Minutes after the ITF’s decision was announced, Sharapova said she would appeal against the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The tribunal found that I did not seek treatment from my doctor for the goal of obtaining a performance enhancing substance.
To the tennis experts, a lengthy doping suspension could harm Sharapova’s carrier and her well known brand, but she received a supportive message from Nike after she was suspended for two years.
Sharapova responded in a statement posted to her Facebook page. “It wasn’t on the banned list but it was performance-enhancing”.
But she claimed the ITF had asked the tribunal to impose a four-year ban, adding it “spent tremendous amounts of time and resources trying to prove I intentionally violated the anti-doping rules”. The key behind this decision of Nike has been the verdict of the ITF Tribunal that said that that the former world no. 1 didn’t intentionally break anti-doping rules.
After the first announcement of the 2016 Prohibited List in September, it appears players were sent another direct email in December referring to the changes, as well as postings on the ITF website and digital “wallet cards” given to players listing the banned substances.
Sharapova, the world’s highest-paid female athlete, stunned the sporting world in March when she announced that she had tested positive for meldonium, a component of a product named Mildronate which she has taken since 2006 for health issues.
Advertisement
She admitted taking it before each of her five matches at the Australian Open, while she also tested positive for it several times in 2015, including at Wimbledon, and in an out-of-competition test in February. “She is the sole author of her own misfortune”.
