VIENNA — The racket supplier for Maria Sharapova, the five-time Grand Slam tennis champion, became the first main sponsor to publicly back her after she admitted to failing a doping test.
Head, which is based in Austria, announced Thursday that it was planning to extend its sponsorship deal, three days after Sharapova revealed her use of the banned substance meldonium.
Johan Eliasch, the company’s chief executive, said Sharapova had made “a manifest error” by her continued use of the drug after it was banned, but added that there was no “evidence of any intent by Maria of enhancing her performance or trying to gain an unfair advantage.