Sharapova makes return to the court
- by Grant Boone
- in Sports
- — Oct 12, 2016
"It's been around for 24 years and it's my first attendance".
The 29-year-old, who teamed up with John McEnroe to beat Navratilova and Andy Roddick in her second match, acknowledged that the journey back would be a tough one.
On Tuesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced the ban by nine months, saying Sharapova was not an "intentional doper", so allowing her to return to the sport in April 2017.
Maria Sharapova has been cleared to participate in exhibition matches as this is not against the rules of her doping ban, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has said.
In the same media offensive last week, Sharapova indicated to ESPN she wasn't convinced the drug meldonium, newly banned this year by the World Anti-Doping Agency, enhances performance.
"The ITF stated clearly that it was the responsibility of the Independent Tribunal - and subsequently the CAS Panel - to determine what the appropriate sanction should be".
"The ITF did not try to ban Ms. Sharapova for four years, as has been suggested", the tennis governing body said.
The ITF hit back in their statement, insisting that Sharapova and her legal team had the right to object to any member of the independent tribunal.
Sharapova and Taylor Johnson react after scoring a point during the World Team Tennis Smash Hits charity tennis event
Sharapova's complaints about the make-up of the tribunal also provoked a firm block from the ITF, which administrates the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme.
Meldonium was added to WADA's banned substances list on January 1, having been on its monitoring list for all of 2015, and athletes and their entourages were warned several times by email that it was about to be prohibited - emails Sharapova did not read.
Sharapova had not played since testing positive for meldonium at the Australian Open.
In a statement released to Press Association Sport, the ITF defended its position.
This followed a number of athletes who failed claiming that they had stopped taking meldonium before the January 1 deadline.
"I don't know what those will be, but I think that's one of the things that will be really important because match play, you can never really replicate it".
"I went through the ITF hearing, which was in front of an arbitration [panel] which was chosen by the ITF", she said.
