LONDON (AP) — Maria Sharapova was suspended Wednesday for two years for failing a drug test, labeled “the sole author of her own misfortune” because she hid regular pre-match use of a newly banned substance from anti-doping authorities and members of her own entourage.
The 2012 Olympic silver medalist said she would appeal what she called “an unfairly harsh” punishment to the Court for Arbitration for Sport, a ban that would keep her out of the Rio Games in August. A reaction was posted to Sharapova’s Facebook account minutes after the two-year-ban announcement.
The ban, handed down by a three-person Tennis Anti-Doping Program tribunal appointed by the International Tennis Federation, is backdated to Jan.