By Martyn Herman and Latika Bourke
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London: Russian former world No.1 Maria Sharapova was handed a two-year ban by the International Tennis Federation on Wednesday following her positive test for the banned drug meldonium at this year's Australian Open, a ban the tennis star has vowed to appeal.
In a statement, the ITF said the 29-year-old five-time grand slam champion's ban would be back-dated to January 26 this year, meaning her results from the Australian Open where she reached the quarter-finals, would be wiped.
Sharapova stunned the sporting world in March when she announced that she had tested positive for meldonium, a drug she said she had been taking for a decade to treat diabetes and low magnesium. Meldonium was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency list of banned substances at the start of the year after evidence that it boosted blood flow and enhanced athletic performance.
Sharapova responded in a statement posted on her Facebook page and vowed to fight the "unfairly harsh" ban.
Maria Sharapova failed to supervise how her management discharged her anti-doping obligations.Credit: AP
"While the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the anti-doping rules, I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension," she said.
"I will immediately appeal the suspension portion of this ruling to CAS, the Court of Arbitration for Sport," she said.
The ITF tribunal agreed the contravention of the anti-doping rules was "not intentional as Sharapova did not appreciate that Mildronate contained a substance prohibited from 1 January 2016."
But in a scathing criticism said if Sharapova had not concealed from her own doctors and support team, her use of the drug prior to its placement on the banned list at the start of 2016, then "the contravention would have been avoided".
Maria Sharapova in action at the Australian Open in January 2016.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
"She is the sole author of her own misfortune," the tribunal concluded.
In statement, the ITF said: "An Independent Tribunal appointed under Article 8.1 of the 2016 Tennis Anti-Doping Programme has found that Maria Sharapova committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation under Article 2.1 of the Programme and as a consequence has disqualified the affected results and imposed a period of ineligibility of two years, commencing on 26 January 2016."
After her admission, Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer cut its ties with Sharapova while other brands such as Nike and Porsche distanced themselves from her.
The ban means she will miss this year's Wimbledon championships, the title she won as a teenager to launch her career into orbit in 2004, and the Rio Olympics.
At the time Sharapova, the highest-profile tennis player to fail an anti-doping test, insisted she had made "a huge mistake" blaming her failure to read an email sent by the ITF that meldonium had been added to the WADA list.
Sharapova has 35 WTA singles titles and has won all four of the sport's grand slam titles.
Her career earnings amount to $US36 million (or around $46 million) while her off-court earnings, according to Forbes, are around $US200 million (or $268 million).
Reuters and Fairfax Media