Maria Sharapova provisionally suspended after failing drug test at Australian Open

Former world number one Maria Sharapova on 7 March 2016 in a press-conference at Los Angeles announced that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open. Due to this failure, she was provisionally suspended from Tennis.

The International Tennis Federation said Sharapova, a five time Grand Slam champion, is provisionally suspended from 12 March 2016 pending further action. She was charged on 2 March 2016 with an Anti-Doping Rule Violation after testing positive for meldonium.

The 28-year-old Russian star tested positive for meldonium, a substance, she has been taking since 2006 for health issues. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on 1 January 2016 included meldonium in its forbidden list.

Sharapova, who lives in Florida, provided the anti-doping sample in question on 26 January 2016, the day she lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarter finals. Maria said that she received an email from WADA with the list of substances forbidden in 2016 back in December 2015, but she didn’t look at that list.

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