Shamed drugs cheat Maria Sharapova returns to tennis court for first time since ban… with support from legends John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova
In the gambling Mecca of Las Vegas, the banned tennis star who gambled with her health taking meldonium, returned to action
MARIA SHARAPOVA celebrated her reduced drugs ban with her return to tennis during a celebrity knock-about with retired backers Andy Roddick, John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova.
Despite testing positive for meldonium during the Australian Open in January - and getting a two-year suspension reduced to 15 months by the court of arbitration for sport – the three former aces joined her for the World Team Tennis Smash Hits charity event in Las Vegas in aid of Elton John’s AIDS foundation.
The Russian was paired with 16-year-old American Taylor Johnson for the show-biz event and, after getting over initial nerves, she said she enjoyed having a laugh with her supporters.
She said: “It was a big occasion for her (Johnson) and also for me.
“I haven't been on a court for a while, for both of us, it was to have some fun and a bit of laughs.”
While Sharapova is moaning about her ban, plenty of her peers in the sport are fuming with the reduced punishment and the jolly return to centre-stage could soon be followed by a return to centre court and a slap in the face for anti-drug workers in the sport.
Speaking around Sharapova’s case, Brit hero Andy Murray said: “I think taking a prescription drug that you don’t necessarily need, but just because it’s legal, that’s wrong, clearly. That’s wrong.
“If you’re taking a prescription drug and you’re not using it for what that drug was meant for, then you don’t need it, so you’re just using it for the performance enhancing benefits that drug is giving you. And I don’t think that that’s right.”
The Wimbledon champ added: “It’s not up to me to decide the punishment, but if you’re taking performance enhancing drugs and you fail a drugs test, you have to get suspended."
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Jennifer Capriati who was forced to quit through injury said: "I'm extremely angry and disappointed.
“I had to lose my career and never opted to cheat no matter what. 'I had to throw in the towel and suffer.
"In my opinion of its all true every title should be stripped. This is other people's lives as well."
However, Navratilova has supported the 29-year-old from the word go and has put the lengthy abuse of the heart-boosting drug down to an “honest mistake”.
The Czech icon said: “Sharapova announces that she failed doping test, hope this gets cleared up as it seems to me to be an honest mistake.”
And McEnroe went a step further and claimed he would have used the drug – which was prohibited by tennis bosses in 2015 after Sharapova was a decade into her usage – back in his heyday.
The legend said: "If a drug is legal? That is like a no brainer. I mean, are you kidding?
"People have been looking since the beginning of time for an edge, and you're constantly looking for these things in any way, shape or form."
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