Maria Sharapova is counting the days until she can return to action
having been cleared to play again next April after the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced the former world number one's
two-year drugs ban by nine months on Tuesday Oct 04,2016
The 29-year-old Sharapova, who can return from April 26 and will be able to play in three of the year's four grand slams, said she could not wait to get back on court.
The Russian, whose case polarised opinion and lost her sponsorship, was handed the original ban - backdated to start on Jan. 26, 2016 - by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) following a positive test for the drug meldonium.
Meldonium was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of banned substances at the start of the year after mounting evidence that it boosted blood flow and enhanced athletic performance.
The arbitration panel reduced the ban to 15 months and found that she "bore some degree of fault" through relying on her agent Max Eisenbud to check the prohibited list for changes and failing to ensure he had done so.
In a statement hailing one of the happiest days of her career, and criticising the ITF at the same time, Sharapova said she had learned a lesson and hoped the authorities had too.
"In so many ways, I feel like something I love was taken away from me and it will feel really good to have it back," the five-times grand slam champion wrote on her Facebook page
The 29-year-old Sharapova, who can return from April 26 and will be able to play in three of the year's four grand slams, said she could not wait to get back on court.
The Russian, whose case polarised opinion and lost her sponsorship, was handed the original ban - backdated to start on Jan. 26, 2016 - by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) following a positive test for the drug meldonium.
Meldonium was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of banned substances at the start of the year after mounting evidence that it boosted blood flow and enhanced athletic performance.
The arbitration panel reduced the ban to 15 months and found that she "bore some degree of fault" through relying on her agent Max Eisenbud to check the prohibited list for changes and failing to ensure he had done so.
In a statement hailing one of the happiest days of her career, and criticising the ITF at the same time, Sharapova said she had learned a lesson and hoped the authorities had too.
"In so many ways, I feel like something I love was taken away from me and it will feel really good to have it back," the five-times grand slam champion wrote on her Facebook page
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