Tennis Queen Maria Sharapova is all set to return on court as Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has reduced her two-year ban to 15 months and she’ll be able to compete from 26th April 2017. It means she’ll be seen competing in the second grand slam of the year “French Open aka Roland Garros”.
“I am counting the days until I can return. In so many ways, I feel like something I love was taken away from me and it will feel really good to have it back. Tennis is my passion and I have missed it,” she said.
Russia tennis star was facing 2 years ban from the sport after finding positive in doping test in Australian Open 2016. However she appealed against the ban and on Tuesday 4th October, CAS revised the ban duration and reduced it to 15 months. Maria thanked her supporters from her official facebook account and posted this.
However she would not be able to compete in Stuttgart which is scheduled to begin on 24th April meanwhile she can’t play till 25th April. During the jury time period, Maria said that she had been using Meldonium drug since 2006 for health issues and never tried to enhance the performance on court.
For your acknowledgement, Meldonium is a heart disease drug which is also popular as mildronate. The substance was banned from 1 January 2016. The CAS panel found that Maria’s case wasn’t about an athlete who cheated.
Maria Sharapova won 5 grand slams in her career till now and she won 2012 and 2014 French Open championships. The Roland Garros is played in May and June first week, hence it is very likely that Russian beauty will be featuring in the second grand slam of 2017 year.
