Russian former world number one Maria Sharapova was handed a two-year ban by the International Tennis Federation on Wednesday following her positive test for banned drug meldonium at this year’s Australian Open.
In a statement the ITF said the 29-year-old five-times grand slam champion’s ban would be back-dated to Jan. 26 this year, meaning her results from the Australian Open where she reached the quarter-finals, would be disqualified.
“An Independent Tribunal appointed under Article 8.1 of the 2016 Tennis Anti-Doping Programme has found that Maria Sharapova committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under Article 2.1 of the Programme and as a consequence has disqualified the affected results and imposed a period of ineligibility of two years, commencing on 26 January 2016,” the ITF said in a statement.
Sharapova, the world’s highest-paid female athlete, stunned the sporting world in March when she announced that she had tested positive for meldonium, a drug she said she had been taking for a decade to treat diabetes and low magnesium.
