Popular tennis star Maria Sharapova was given a two-year ban in June 2016 after her blood was discovered with contents of “dope.” The CAS later agreed that it was an “unintentional dope,” and thus reduce the sentence of her ban by giving her a wildcard entry into Wimbledon’s qualifying tournament. The drama made Sharapova’s world go upside down. If her innocence wasn’t proved then her career would potentially have been over as well. A year years later, she finally spoke up about the issue.
Sharapova on her ban
According to a report by Daily Mail, the Tennis Player said that she felt like a very “small” person at that time.
While the controversy was on-going, she wanted to be treated like a “normal human being.” In an interview with THE EDIT, she admitted to feeling like a “little girl,” in front of Serena Williams. On the recommendation of her doctor, Sharapova consumed a drug called “meldonium.” It was only recently enlisted as one of the banned drugs in athletes, and the player was unaware of it when she took the routine drugs test last March.
According to her representatives, she has been consuming meldonium for the last 10 years, to treat her diabetes health problem. She went on to add that she would often ask everyone around her if she had done something wrong – something that she hadn’t done before. The first four-five months were the toughest for Sharapova.
She served the ban for a year and three months until the authorities finally discovered that she was not to blame. As reported by Metro, she will be seen returning to tennis again and this time around, Sharapova wants to be able to live her life to the fullest. She has always felt that she had been missing out on a lot of aspects during the span of her career.
Her 31st birthday is coming up, which Sharapova wants to celebrate as a normal human being.
The future of the player
She says that she is much more aware of what is most important to her right now. She has made a firm decision of how she is going to go about doing certain things in her life, and Sharapova is confident at sticking by them.
She opened up about her relationship with ex-boyfriend, Grigor Dimitrov and arch-rival, Serena Williams. She finds Williams’ competitiveness and physicality extremely impressive. There are still times when she ends up feeling like a “little girl” while playing with Serena, she admitted. She believes that both of them have a lot of respect for each other on and outside court.
