However, will Wimbledon – or any of the other Grand Slam tournaments for that matter - want to give such support to Maria Sharapova, who remains a drugs offender despite the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision to reduce her International Tennis Federation ban from two years to 15 months? However, Cas said Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam winner, was at fault for not giving her agent "adequate instructions" about Wada's prohibited list and "failing to supervise and control" her agent. Media playback is not supported on this device Tennis made example of me - Sharapova

Tennis players will not be able to plead ignorance if they test positive for banned substances, says the International Tennis Federation. CAS said in a statement: "The panel found that Ms Sharapova committed an anti-doping rule violation and that while it was with 'no significant fault', she bore some degree of fault, for which a sanction of 15 months is appropriate." Sharapova, who tested positive for Meldonium at this year’s Australian Open, can return to competition next April, but in order to gain direct entry into the Grand Slam events she would need to be ranked in the world’s top 104 six weeks before the start of each tournament. While the CAS ruling will have made uncomfortable reading for the ITF, which was said to have failed to give adequate warning to players that Meldonium was being added to the sport’s list of banned substances in 2016, it also made clear that Sharapova bore “some degree of fault”. Media playback is not supported on this device Sharapova reveals failed drug test

Sharapova's lawyer, John Haggerty, called the Cas decision "a stunning repudiation of the ITF". “As we demonstrated before CAS, not only did the tennis anti-doping authorities fail to properly warn Maria, if you compare what the ITF did with how other federations warned athletes of the rule change, it’s a night and day difference.”

Sharapova said she was first prescribed the Latvian-made drug, typically used for heart conditions, by her family doctor for various medical issues in 2006.
In an appeals review, the International Tennis Federation states that tennis players will not be able to plead ignorance if they test positive for banned substances. The Court of Arbitration for Sport reduces Maria Sharapova's two-year ban to 15 months. She tested positive for meldonium.