TENNIS: RUSSIAN TENNIS STAR MARIA SHARAPOVA BANNED FOR TWO YEARS BY INTERNATIONAL TENNIS FEDERATION (ITF)

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Tennis Star and former world number one Maria Sharapova, 29 has been handed a two-year ban by ITF for testing positive to a banned substance meldonium (anti-ischemic).

In her defence, she stated that
she wasn't aware meldonium is banned in tennis coz she's been using it for about 10 years.

Meldonium is not licensed in U.S.A (country of residence) but it is in her country Russia.

Question: Where's she been using it for almost 10 years?

Investigations revealed she had used the drug before each of her five matches at this year's Australian Open.

An excerpt from the tribunal's reads;

     "The ITF accepts that the player did not       engage in conduct that she knew                       constituted an anti-doping rule violation."

However, it rejects her claims that there was no significant fault in her part.

Sharapova has stated she will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
In her words;

"While the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the anti-doping rules, I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension."