Russian Tennis Federation President Shamil Tarpishchev has revealed possible prospects of veteran women’s tennis player Maria Sharapova may play at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Though there has been no confirmation of the statement as the teams for the Athletics event in Japan are far from being announced, chances of Sharapova featuring for her country has somehow been handed an upwards push.
In March 2016, Sharapova revealed she had failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open, admitting to testing positive for meldonium, a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) at the start of 2016. On June 8, 2016, she was suspended from playing tennis for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Sharapova filed an appeal on June 9 with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against her two-year suspension, which was officially announced on June 8 by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tribunal over anti-doping violations. In October, the CAS cut the term of Sharapova’s suspension, allowing the tennis star to perform at official sport events from April 26, 2017.
“Sharapova may play for the Russian team and is able to win gold at the 2020 Olympics. The sole question here is her wish.In late April, Sharapova is returning to participation in tournaments. We’ll see how quickly she will be able to return to the high level. The world of sports is not standing idle and is moving quickly, but we all know that Sharapova is a professional and everything depends on her.”
-Shamil Tarpishchev, President, Russian Tennis Federation
The former World No. 1 has 35 singles titles and five Grand slam titles to show off also won the Women’s singles silver medal for Russia in the 2012 Summer Olympic games in London and will definitely prove to be a force to be reckoned with if she decides to go forward with representing her country at the Toky 2020 Olympic games.
