{"id":5857,"date":"2016-03-07T21:12:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/03\/07\/maria-sharapova-failed-a-drug-test-at-australian-open\/"},"modified":"2016-03-07T21:12:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T21:12:00","slug":"maria-sharapova-failed-a-drug-test-at-australian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/maria-sharapova-failed-a-drug-test-at-australian-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Sharapova Failed A Drug Test At Australian Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Laura Wagner<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\"Maria<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Maria Sharapova talks to the media in Los Angeles on Monday regarding a failed drug test. Kevork Djansezian\/Getty Images<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Kevork Djansezian\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova announced at a news conference Monday that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

The current world No. 7 said she was notified by the International Tennis Federation several days ago. The Tennis Anti-Doping Program confirmed to The New York Times<\/a> that she will be “provisionally suspended” starting on March 12, “pending the determination of the case.”<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old, who most recently lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarterfinals in January, said she tested positive for meldonium, a substance she has been taking since 2006.<\/p>\n

“I had several health issues going on at the time,” Sharapova said, according to Reuters. “I was getting sick very often … and I had a deficiency in magnesium and a family history of diabetes, and there were signs of diabetes. That is one of the medications, along with others, that I received.”<\/p>\n

According to ITF documents<\/a>, meldonium was moved from the “monitoring program” and added to the “prohibited list” beginning in 2016.<\/p>\n

“I failed the test and take full responsibility for that,” Sharapova said, according to the BBC. “I had been taking this medicine for the past 10 years, but on Jan. 1 this became a prohibited substance which I did not know.”<\/p>\n

She added: “I received an email on Dec. 22, 2015 from WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] about the changes happening to the banned list and you can see prohibited items, and I didn’t click on that link.”<\/p>\n

When Sharapova, who withdrew from this week’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells owing to injury, announced her intent to hold a news conference to make an announcement, there was rampant speculation that she would be retiring. She shot down those rumors, saying, “I know I face consequences and I didn’t want to end my career this way. I hope I will be given the chance to play this game again.”<\/p>\n

Sharapova also offered a joke, saying if she was retiring she wouldn’t announce it at “a hotel in downtown Los Angeles with some fairly ugly carpet.”<\/p>\n

\n
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WATCH: Maria Sharapova says she would never announce retirement in L.A. hotel “with a fairly ugly carpet” https:\/\/t.co\/TXmmcNEvuN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) March 7, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source:: http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/03\/07\/469541270\/maria-sharapova-failed-a-drug-test-at-australian-open?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Maria<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Maria Sharapova talks to the media in Los Angeles on Monday regarding a failed drug test. Kevork Djansezian\/Getty Images<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Kevork Djansezian\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova announced at a news conference Monday that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

The current world No. 7 said she was notified by the International Tennis Federation several days ago. The Tennis Anti-Doping Program confirmed to The New York Times<\/a> that she will be “provisionally suspended” starting on March 12, “pending the determination of the case.”<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old, who most recently lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarterfinals in January, said she tested positive for meldonium, a substance she has been taking since 2006.<\/p>\n

“I had several health issues going on at the time,” Sharapova said, according to Reuters. “I was getting sick very often … and I had a deficiency in magnesium and a family history of diabetes, and there were signs of diabetes. That is one of the medications, along with others, that I received.”<\/p>\n

According to ITF documents<\/a>, meldonium was moved from the “monitoring program” and added to the “prohibited list” beginning in 2016.<\/p>\n

“I failed the test and take full responsibility for that,” Sharapova said, according to the BBC. “I had been taking this medicine for the past 10 years, but on Jan. 1 this became a prohibited substance which I did not know.”<\/p>\n

She added: “I received an email on Dec. 22, 2015 from WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] about the changes happening to the banned list and you can see prohibited items, and I didn’t click on that link.”<\/p>\n

When Sharapova, who withdrew from this week’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells owing to injury, announced her intent to hold a news conference to make an announcement, there was rampant speculation that she would be retiring. She shot down those rumors, saying, “I know I face consequences and I didn’t want to end my career this way. I hope I will be given the chance to play this game again.”<\/p>\n

Sharapova also offered a joke, saying if she was retiring she wouldn’t announce it at “a hotel in downtown Los Angeles with some fairly ugly carpet.”<\/p>\n

\n
\n

WATCH: Maria Sharapova says she would never announce retirement in L.A. hotel “with a fairly ugly carpet” https:\/\/t.co\/TXmmcNEvuN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) March 7, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}