• Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova (Photo : Twitter)

3:00 p.m, March 7 Update: Former world's no.1 Maria Sharapova has announced that she failed the drug test at the Australian Open, but she has no plans of retiring. Sharapova, 28, revealed that she has received a letter from ITF informing her of failure to pass a drug test at the Australian Open.

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"I failed the test and take full responsibility for that," said Sharapova, who won Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004.

"I had been taking this medicine for the past 10 years, but on 1 January this became a prohibited substance which I did not know."

Sharapova added she's clueless as to how long the suspension he will be serving, but she likes to have a second chance at redeeming herself.

"Sharapova received a letter from the International Tennis Foundation several days ago informing her that she had failed the test for Meldonium, a substance that had been legal until Jan. 1 of this year. Sharapova did not indicate what the penalties would be or how long she might be away from the game of tennis," per Yahoo Sports.

1:00 p.m, March 7 Update: Maria Sharapova will be holding a press conference in Los Angeles on Monday at 12 noon pacific time (2:00 p.m US EST) to make a very big announcement, according to her management company IMG.


Although this is not the first time Sharapova will be holding a live presser, speculation is ripe that she will announce her retirement from competitive tennis today after 13 professional seasons.

Sharapova, one of just 10 female players to ever complete a career Grand Slam, has been hampered with injuries the past several months, forcing her to have sporadic participation in tournaments.

If retirement rumors are true, the sport will be losing one of the most marketable female tennis players in history. Sharapova has been arguably the most popular and bankable female netter, topping the Forbes highest-paid female athletes for 11 consecutive years.

"The 28-year-old has been the highest paid female athlete in the world for 11 years in a row, according to Forbes, which points out that she made nearly $30 million between June 2014 and June 2015. And since less than $7 million of that was from prize money, the bulk of it was from her sponsors, which include Nike, Head, Porsche, Evian and Avon," according to Market Watch. Sharapova rose to prominence after beating rival Serena Williams in the final of the 2014 Wimbledon Open at age 17, making her the third youngest woman to ever win a Wimbledon title just behind Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport.


The Russian diva went on to win a US Open crown in 2006, Australian Open in 2008 and two Roland Garros championships in 2012 and 2014. She also won a silver medal in women's singles at the 2012 London Olympics, and held the no.1 ranking for 21 weeks.

Sharapova earned 36,484,486 million in prize money throughout her tennis career.