Maria Sharapova has revealed she failed a drugs test at the Australian Open in January.
The 28-year-old former world No 1 tested positive for meldonium, a substance she has been taking since 2006 for health issues.
Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam champion, is provisionally suspended from March 12 pending further action.
“I did fail the test and take full responsibility for it,” she said.
“For the past 10 years I have been given a medicine called mildronate by my family doctor and a few days ago after I received a letter from the ITF [International Tennis Federation] I found out it also has another name of meldonium, which I did not know.”
Maria Sharapova won the Wimbledon title as a 17-year-old in 2004.
The Russian, who lives in Florida, provided the anti-doping sample in question on January 26, the day she lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarter-finals.
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The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) analyzed the sample and returned a positive for meldonium, leading to the Russian being charged on March 2.
“It is very important for you to understand that for 10 years this medicine was not on WADA’s banned list and I had been legally taking that medicine for the past 10 years,” said Maria Sharapova.
“But on January 1 the rules had changed and meldonium became a prohibited substance, which I had not known.”
Maria Sharapova added: “I received an email on December 22 from WADA about the changes happening to the banned list and you can see prohibited items – and I didn’t click on that link.”
She has been the highest-earning female athlete in the world for the past 11 years, according to the Forbes list.
She first reached world No 1 in August 2005 and is currently seventh in the rankings – but she has played just four tournaments since Wimbledon last July as she struggled with an arm injury.
Maria Sharapova, who turns 29 in April, hopes to be able to return to tennis in the future.
However, there had been speculation Maria Sharapova was going to announce her retirement and a large media contingent gathered for the Los Angeles news conference, which was streamed live online.
“I know many of you thought that I would be retiring today but if I was ever going to announce my retirement it would not be in a downtown Los Angeles hotel with this fairly ugly carpet,” she said.
Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) president Steve Simon said he is “very saddened” at Maria Sharapova’s failed test.
“Maria is a leader and I have always known her to be a woman of great integrity,” he added.
“As Maria acknowledged, it is every player’s responsibility to know what they put in their body and to know if it is permissible.
“This matter is now in the hands of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program and its standard procedures. The WTA will support the decisions reached through this process.”
Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray to win his sixth Australian Open title.
The world No 1 won 6-1 7-5 7-6 (7-3) to claim his sixth Melbourne title, tying the record of Australia’s Roy Emerson.
Novak Djokovic, 28, also draws level with tennis greats Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver on 11 Grand Slam titles.
Andy Murray, 28, has now lost all five Australian Open finals he has played, four of them against Novak Djokovic.
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The Scot becomes only the second man – behind his former coach Ivan Lendl at the US Open – to lose five finals at the same Grand Slam since the open era began in 1968.
Andy Murray was expected to head straight to the airport after the final to return to London and his wife Kim, who is due to give birth to their first child in the next two weeks.
Novak Djokovic has now won four of the past five major tournaments, including three in a row, and will try to complete his career Grand Slam with a first French Open title in June 2015.
Angelique Kerber stunned world No 1 Serena Williams in three sets to win her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.
The 28-year-old has become the first German since Steffi Graf in 1999 to win a Grand Slam title.
Angelique Kerber, seeded seventh, won a thrilling final 6-4 3-6 6-4 at Melbourne Park.
The 28-year-old is the first German to win a major singles title since Steffi Graf at the 1999 French Open.
Serena Williams, 34, was beaten for just the fifth time in 26 Grand Slam finals, and the American missed the chance to tie Steffi Graf’s open-era record of 22 titles.
Angelique Kerber, who saved a match point in her first-round win over Misaki Doi, will move up to No 2 in the world rankings.
She had won just one of six previous matches against Serena Williams and was making her Grand Slam final debut, but she was the better player over two hours and eight minutes on Rod Laver Arena.
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She led Serena Williams in the ace count until the latter stages, limiting her to just seven overall, while the American racked up 46 errors to just 13 by Kerber.
Serena Williams made 23 mistakes in the first set alone – sparking memories of her desperately nervous display in losing to Roberta Vinci at the US Open in September 2015 – and Angelique Kerber took full advantage to claim it after 39 minutes.
However, the defending champion cut her error count to just five in the second set and claimed it thanks to a single break in game four.
Angelique Kerber twice moved ahead in the decider and a stunning sixth game saw the German produce two fine drop shots and win a breathtaking 19-stroke rally to cling on to her serve and edge closer to victory.
Nerves took hold and she was broken while serving for the match, but she launched into the Williams serve once again and clinched the title when the world number one sent a volley long.
Angelique Kerber said afterwards that being able to say she was a Grand Slam champion “sounds crazy”.
“It’s my dream come. I worked for this my whole life,” said the German.
“It’s been such an up and down two weeks, I was match point down in the first round and had one foot in the plane to Germany.
“Now I have beaten Serena and won the championship. I have so many emotions, so many thoughts, but all of them good ones.”
Serena Williams was gracious in defeat, telling Angelique Kerber: “Angie, congratulations. You deserve this and I’m so happy for you. I really hope you enjoy this moment.”
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