If Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova had played on the PGA Tour, she would not have been suspended for her recent drug violation.
Sharapova, 28, tested positive for the substance meldonium, she disclosed March 7 in a news conference in Los Angeles. The five-time Grand Slam champion, who won Wimbledon in 2004 as a 17-year-old, will be provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Federation, effective March 12.
The drug, which also is known as mildronate, is manufactured in Latvia and used in Lithuania and the Russian Federation to treat ischemia, a lack of blood flow to parts of the body.