Maria Sharapova "returned to the tennis court for two exhibition matches on Monday," her first appearance since testing positive for the banned substance meldonium at the Australian Open in January, according to Simon Jennings of REUTERS. The Russian former world No. 1 played at the World Team Tennis "Smash Hits" event in Las Vegas, which raises money for the Elton John Aids Foundation. She said, "It's very special to be back on the court." The 29-year-old, who teamed up with John McEnroe to beat Martina Navratilova and Andy Roddick in her second match, "acknowledged that the journey back would be a tough one." She said, "Yeah, I will look to play maybe a couple of exhibition events leading up to my first tournament in April" (REUTERS, 10/11).
SLAP ON THE WRIST: In London, Oliver Brown opined it was "tough justice, tennis-style." A "few high-fives, the obligatory selfie" with Elton John, and some "priceless publicity amid a blaze of Las Vegas neon." This is the "savage punishment that the sport sees fit to bestow" upon Sharapova, who, one could be "forgiven for forgetting, is not even halfway through a 15-month ban for doping." Tennis hit-and-giggles "are tough watches at the best of times, but doubly so when they feature this tarnished, incorrigibly entitled swan." Hers was a performance "more carefully calibrated than Hillary Clinton’s on debate night." Cozying up to McEnroe, "chewing the fat" with Navratilova, "and a little back-and-forth" with Andy Roddick: this was "less a benefit for the Elton John Aids Foundation than a gala reception for Sharapova herself." One would have thought, from this "teeth-grindingly inappropriate love-in, that she was returning from a sabbatical of self-discovery, not interrupting a suspension for using a banned drug five times" at her last Grand Slam tournament (TELEGRAPH, 10/11).
