Sharapova slams media, goes defensive on Facebook

New YorkAce player Maria Sharapova who sent the tennis fraternity into a spin by announcing that she failed a dope test at the Australian Open and was provisionally suspended has blamed media for distorting the facts and failing to accurately report about what actually happenedIn a lengthy Facebook post addressed to her fans on Saturday Sharapova said she is grateful to them for showing her a tremendous outpouring of supportMaria SharapovaBut I have also been aware that some not all but some in the media distort exaggerate and fail to accurately report the facts about what happenedrdquo she postedA report said that I had been warned five times about the upcoming ban on the medicine I was taking That is not true and it never happened Thatrsquos a distortion of the actual communications which were provided or simply posted onto a webpagerdquo she addedShe further wrote ldquoI make no excuses for not knowing about the ban I already told you about the December 22 2015 email I received Its subject line was Main Changes to the Tennis AntiDoping Programme for 2016 I should have paid more attention to itrdquoThe Russian star explained that the drug Meldonium which had been prescribed for a preexisting condition for up to a decade was added to a banned substance list only on this January 1 and she had not knownThe World AntiDoping Agency WADA banned the drug effective January 1 Sharapova the World No7 said she didnt notice that the drug was banned by the WADABut the other ldquocommunicationsrdquo They were buried in newsletters websites or handoutsOn December 18 I received an email with the subject line ldquoPlayer Newsrdquo on it It contained a newsletter on a website that contained tons of information about travel upcoming tournaments rankings statistics bulletin board notices happy birthday wishes and yes antidoping informationrdquo said her latest Facebook postOn that email if a player wanted to find the specific facts about medicine added to the antidoping list it was necessary to open the ldquoPlayer Newsrdquo email read through about a dozen unrelated links find the ldquoPlayer Zonerdquo link enter a password enter a username read a home screen with more than three dozen different links covering multiple topics find the ldquo2016 Changes to Tennis AntiDoping Program and Informationrdquo link click on it and then read a page with approximately three dozen more links covering multiple antidoping mattersrdquo she explainedThen you had to click the correct link open it up scroll down to page two and thatrsquos where you would find a different name for the medication I was taking In other words in order to be aware of this ldquowarningrdquo you had to open an email with a subject line having nothing to do with antidoping click on a webpage enter a password enter a username hunt click hunt click hunt click scroll and read I guess some in the media can call that a warning I think most people would call it too hard to findrdquo Sharapova addedThe International Tennis Federation ITF said on Tuesday she would be provisionally banned from March 12 The usual ban for firsttime offenders is two yearsThe failed drug test came on January 26 after Sharapova lost to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals and she was charged with an antidoping violation on March 2There was also a ldquowallet cardrdquo distributed at various tournaments at the beginning of 2016 after the ban went into effect This document had thousands of words on it many of them technical in small print Should I have studied it Yes But if you saw this document attached you would know what I mean Again no excuses but itrsquos wrong to say I was warned five timesrdquo the Russian player postedIrsquom proud of how I have played the game I have been honest and upfront I wonrsquot pretend to be injured so I can hide the truth about my testing I look forward to the ITF hearing at which time they will receive my detailed medical records I hope I will be allowed to play againrdquo she saidThe failed drug test could cause the fivetime Grand Slam winner a spot at the Rio 2016 Olympics and the 298000 she won in January at the Australian Open