Maria Sharapova "posted a letter to her fans Friday on her Facebook page," in which she denied a report that she had been warned five times about the impending ban on meldonium, according to the AP. Sharapova wrote, "A report said that I had been warned five times about the upcoming ban on the medicine I was taking. That is not true and it never happened. That's a distortion of the actual 'communications,' which were provided or simply posted onto a webpage." Sharapova wrote she "should have paid more attention" to an email in December with the subject line "Main Changes to the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme for 2016." Sharapova: "But the other 'communications?' They were buried in newsletters, websites, or handouts" (AP, 3/11).
NO SYMPATHY: In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont wrote the ITF's decision on disciplining Sharapova "should be easy, a ban of two years if the tribunal believes she broke those rules unintentionally, or four years if she broke them intentionally." Dupont: "It has to be one or the other. Put the sport’s integrity first, everything and everyone else second. Not easy. But courage isn’t supposed to be easy" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/13). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Tom Perrotta wrote under the header, "In Tennis, No Tears Are Shed for Maria Sharapova." The opinions of Sharapova's colleagues on the tennis tour are "so-far unsympathetic" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/12). John McEnroe said of the meldonium ban, "Would be hard to believe that no one in her camp, the 25 or 30 people that work for her, or Maria herself had no idea that this happened." He added, "It is possible that Maria did not know that, though it's extremely doubtful" (REUTERS, 3/13). In Toronto, Bruce Arthur wrote under the header, "You're A Sucker If You Believe Maria Sharapova's Story." Arthur: "If you believe Sharapova’s reasons, you’re a sucker. If you praise how she handled it, you recognize good, superficial PR. If you are a sponsor who cut or suspended ties with her ... then you are wary of the danger here." He added, "If you are a sponsor who stayed ... then you are a cynical tool" (TORONTO STAR, 3/12).
WHO IS TAKING THE FALL? SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Daniel Kaplan writes it is "often the job of agents and others in a players’ circle to weed through what can be dense and tricky communications" regarding banned substances, "leading to some speculation within tennis that someone at Sharapova’s agency, WME-IMG, would take the fall" for her positive test. Her agent is Max Eisenbud, and he "oversees a large team that manages the Sharapova business." An IMG spokesperson in an email wrote, "Maria has instructed us that there should be no finger-pointing and her focus is on her future. She wants to work with the (ITF) and play tennis again. That is our focus" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/14 issue).
PART OF A TREND: In N.Y., Christopher Clarey writes the name of the drug meldonium "suddenly rolls off the tongues of sports fans as easily as those of established" PEDs. Sharapova's positive test has "driven much of the global interest, but the number of positive tests -- expected to soar past 100 this week, if it has not done so already -- has experts grasping for context" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/14).
