MOSCOW – The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said today it had ruled to reduce the 2-year disqualification over doping use of Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova to 15 months beginning on January 26, 2016.
The five-time grand slam champion appealed on June 9, 2016 to CAS seeking to reduce a two-year doping ban issued on June 6 by a tribunal appointed by the ITF. Sharapova was tested positive for meldonium at January’s 2016 Australian Open. Sharapova claimed that she has taken meldonium for health issues since 2006 and didn’t know that it was added to the list of banned drugs.
“The CAS Panel in charge of the matter has reduced her period of suspension, by nine months, from two years to fifteen months, beginning on 26 January 2016,” CAS said in a statement.
– Sputnik
