A ruling on Maria Sharapova's appeal of her two-year doping ban "has been postponed until September, ruling her definitively out of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro," according to CBS. The Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Monday that Sharapova and the Int'l Tennis Federation "agreed to defer the decision, which had been due to be issued by next Monday." CAS, the highest court in sports, said both parties wanted more time to prepare their case and also cited "scheduling conflicts." The court said that a verdict "is expected by Sept. 19." Sharapova "tested positive for meldonium at the Australian Open in January and received a two-year ban from the ITF." She has called the decision to ban her for two years "an unfairly harsh" punishment to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The decision to push back the ruling to September also rules out any possibility of Sharapova being cleared to play in the U.S. Open, which runs from Aug. 29-Sept. 11. Sharapova's lawyer, John Haggerty, said that "the decision was by mutual agreement and will give her team additional time to prepare its case." Haggerty said, "CAS is the court of final appeal and this extension will be helpful. We are hopeful Maria's suspension will be reduced, but in all cases, these additional two months will not impact our expectations of what can be achieved" (CBS, 7/11).
