At last the wait is about to get over when the five times grand slam champion Maria Sharapova will return to competitive action following a 15 month doping ban at the Stuttgart Grand Prix in April, the Russian said on Tuesday. The Florida based Sharapova was originally banned for two years after testing positive for meldonium at last year’s Australian Open. Maria Sharapova, the former world number one is one of the highest paid athletes in the world in the past decade and she admitted to have used meldonium for years as she was not aware of it that it had been banned since the start of 2016. Post the suspension Sharapova made an appeal against the decision and than the suspension was later cut to 15 months on appeal.
Sharapova, who won the indoor clay event three years running from 2012, said on the tournament website that “I could not be happier to have my first match back on tour at one of my favourite tournaments,” “I can’t wait to see all my great fans and to be back doing what I love.”
Maria Sharapova will return to action in time to contest the season’s second grand slam at Roland Garros. The French Open begins on May 22. Tournament director Markus Guenthardt, said “I’m really happy for Maria that she’s back after a long break. Particularly pleasing for me is that it’s going to be our audience that gets to watch her comeback live,” “(It)…is certain to be one of the sporting and emotional highlights of our anniversary tournament.”
Sharapova, who will turn 30 on April 19, had earned US$29.7 million in 2015 as the world’s highest paid female athlete. After the suspension, she called the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) original ruling “unfairly harsh” as an independent tribunal had found that she had not intentionally violated anti-doping rules.
Tournament organisers have given the five times grand slam winner and former top ranked Russian a wild card as per their statement on their website. Sharapova has also won the event three times and had been sponsored by Porsche until the German luxury car maker initially put the agreement on hold when she was first banned. Although the tournament starts on April 22 but Sharapova is scheduled to play her first match on April 26, the first day after her suspension for testing positive for the banned heart drug meldonium ends.
