Maria Sharapova’s punishment will be reduced by nine months, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced, ruling that the original penalty was disproportionately harsh for an infraction that Sharapova committed unintentionally. The Russian tennis star, won a partial victory in the world’s top sports court on Tuesday after appealing her two-year suspension for a doping violation.
Sharapova, 29, tested positive for meldonium, a heart medication newly banned by antidoping regulators, at the Australian Open in January. She then publicly announced the violation in March, days after she was privately notified of the lab results.
According to the NY times,she will now be eligible to return to international competition on April 25, 2017, a week after her 30th birthday and in time for the French Open and Wimbledon. Under the previous ruling, she would have been suspended until Jan. 25, 2018.
She was quoted to have said “I’ve gone from one of the toughest days in my career to, now, one of the happiest days.”
At the time of her initial suspension, Sharapova was among the top 10 players in the world; she is currently ranked 95th. But she will have no ranking points, which accumulate over the previous 52 weeks, by the time she is reinstated in late April.