An Int'l Tennis Federation tribunal on Wednesday suspended Maria Sharapova through Jan. 25, 2018, a sentence she immediately said she would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports.
The tribunal suspended her for ingesting meldonium, a substance she had taken legally for years until WADA banned it in January. Sharapova, who has been provisionally suspended since March, admitted to taking it during the Australian Open this year, but said she had not known it had been banned.
The two-year ban, postdated to January, means the ITF found she did not intentionally take the substance (a four-year ban would have meant she took it on purpose). The ITF rules are very rigid and gave it little leeway to take mitigating circumstances into account, such as WADA’s controversial ban of the substance.
In the past, CAS has reduced ITF drug suspensions, including in '13 when Viktor Troicki’s suspension was cut to 12 months from 18 months. That same year CAS cut Marin Cilic’s ban from nine months to four months.
In a statement on her Facebook page, Sharapova wrote, “While the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the anti-doping rules, I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension. The tribunal, whose members were selected by the ITF, agreed that I did not do anything intentionally wrong, yet they seek to keep me from playing tennis for two years. I will immediately appeal the suspension portion of this ruling to CAS, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”
The WTA in a statement said, "It is important at all times for players to be aware of the rules and to follow them. In this case, Maria has taken responsibility for her mistake from the outset. The WTA supports the process that the ITF and Maria have followed. The ITF has made its ruling and, under the Tennis Anti-Doping Program, the decision may be appealed to the Court Arbitration for Sport. The WTA will continue to follow this closely and we hope it will be resolved as soon as possible." Sharapova’s lawyer predicted her two-year suspension would be reduced on appeal. John Haggerty, in an email, wrote to SBD Global, “I believe that at CAS [the Court for Arbitration for Sports], which is made up of an arbitrator selected by Maria, one selected by the ITF and a neutral arbitrator selected by CAS, Maria’s suspension will be reduced and she will return to tennis sooner."
IMPACT ON SPONSORS: ESPN's Darren Rovell reported the ruling "could be worth a lot of money to Sharapova because of the finding that her use wasn't performance-enhancing." Her deals with Nike and Porsche were suspended in March, and they now "would be harder to sever without compensation." Other companies such as Evian and Head have "continued using her, while watchmaker Tag Heuer elected not to renew its deal at the start of this year." Meanwhile, her Sugarpova line of gummy candy and chocolate "have gained worldwide distribution" (ESPN, 6/8).
