Grass Court

It’s very likely that Maria Yuryevna Sharapova will return to Wimbledon this summer, even though officially she will have to wait for June 20 to know whether she has been awarded wild card by the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Sharapova returned from her very controversial 15-month ban with a convincing run to the semi-finals at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany last week.

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova made a shining comeback to tennis after serving a 15-month doping ban for taking meldonium. Photo: Michael Probst/AP.

Ave Maria

• Maria Sharapova returns to tennis court for first time since drugs ban, The Guardian, October 11, 2016

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova enjoys a winning shot during the World Team Tennis charity exhibition in Las Vegas, United States. She will return to competitive tennis in April after her ban was reduced from two years to 15 months by the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) last week. Photo: Isaac Brekken/AP.

Rendez-vous à Paris

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova’s two-year doping ban has been reduced from two years to 15 months following her appeal to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), allowing the Russian to return to tennis just in time for the French Open next year. “I’ve gone from one of the toughest days of my career last March when I learned about my suspension to now, one of my happiest days, as I found out I can return to tennis in April”, Maria Yuryevna said. “I have taken responsibility from the very beginning for not knowing that the over-the-counter supplement I had been taking for the last 10 years was no longer allowed. But I also learned how much better other federations were at notifying their athletes of the rule change, especially in eastern Europe where Mildronate is commonly taken by millions of people”.

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova
Photo: peoples.ru

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

As an athlete who has been involved in doping procedures for years – and who came close to missing tests – I feel compelled to defend cyclist Lizzie Armitstead It might not be an ideal moment to speak up in support of an athlete who has been viewed suspiciously by her fellow Olympians but I’ve been spurred into action after reading so many people, many of whom love to sensationalise, offering their opinions on Lizzie Armitstead’s missed drugs tests. A depressingly dark cloud lingers over the sporting world at present – and many athletes and associations are cheating more than ever – but it’s worth considering another side of the story before reaching a suspicious conclusion. As a professional athlete who has been involved in doping procedures for many years and has been tested untold times, I have to say, without knowing Lizzie, I feel compelled to defend her. If nothing else, she deserves to have someone show another side to it all. My own hunch is that she is not a doping cheat and that she made a mistake. Something that has not often been noted in reflections of commentators over the past weeks, is that in 2016 alone Armitstead faced 16 tests and all of them were clean. [Read more].

• James Willstrop, People should understand how drug tests work before they condemn athletes, The Guardian, August 18, 2016

Lizzie Armitstead before the women’s Olympic road race. Photo: Tom Jenkins for The Guardian.