- Maria Sharapova failed a drugs test at the Australian Open in January
- The 29-year-old former world No 1 tested positive for banned meldonium
- The International Tennis Federation announced ban at 4pm on Wednesday
- The drug meldonium was added to WADA banned list on January 1, 2016
Maria Sharapova has been handed a two-year ban from tennis after her confession that she tested positive for meldonium at the Australian Open in January.
The ban has been backdated to January 26 - the day the Russian failed her drugs test - meaning it will end on January 25, 2018.
The ban was at the heavier end of expectations and it means she cannot play a Grand Slam until the French Open 2018.
Maria Sharapova speaks about her failed Australian Open drugs test during a news conference in March
The Russian has now been slapped with a lengthy ban after testing positive for banned substance meldonium
Sharapova shocked the whole sport when on March 7 she revealed at a press conference in Los Angeles that she had been found with the substance in her system after a test in Melbourne taken on January 25.
The 29 year-old Russian, at the time the highest earning female athlete in the world, has turned out to be the figurehead of a whole debate about the Latvian-produced substance that has ensnared hundreds of other athletes from a whole variety of sports.
Sharapova admitted she had been taking the drug since 2006, and was provisionally banned from March 12
The five-times Grand Slam winner and former world No 1 claimed in Los Angeles that she was simply unaware that it had been formally declared illegal as of January 1 this year.
She said that she had been taking it for ten years after being prescribed it by her family doctor for a range of ailments, from heart irregularities to a family history of diabetes.
It has subsequently turned out that hundreds of others taking part in elite sport, mainly from Eastern Europe, have also been regular users. It has been a headline case in the recent scandals involving doping and Russia.
The drug was formerly known as mildronate, which was her explanation for neither her nor her highly professional support team knowing that it has been put on the prohibited list.
While the fallout has been huge for the sport as a whole it has also come at a cost for Sharapova, who has lost an array of her lucrative sponsorships, including her clothing company Nike. It remains to be seen if any will come back on board.
Sharapova, who even without this issue has faced a range of injuries in the past nine months, pledged in March that she did not wish to end her career in such a manner.
Tennis has increased its anti-doping programme in recent years and introduced biological passports, although the likes of Andy Murray and Roger Federer have expressed the view that still more could be done.
The panel met in London in the week prior to the French Open, with the verdict expected within two weeks. However, due to the high profile of the case and scale of legal representation it took a week longer than expected to return its findings.
Credit - Mail Online
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