Maria Sharapova’s 2-Year Doping Ban Reduced to 15 Months

Maria Sharapova

The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) has reduced Maria Sharapova‘s two-year doping ban to 15 months, following her appeal.

With this development, Sharapova will be able to return to the tennis tour on April 26 next year.

The five-time Grand Slam winner, 29, was initially banned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for two years after testing positive for meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open.

Following the ruling, Sharapova released a statement:

While delivering the ruling, the CAS did not absolve Sharapova of any negligence in continuing to take meldonium after it had joined the banned list on Jan 1. Instead, this second panel made a distinction between “fault” (which was present, in their opinion) and “significant fault” (which was not).