Maria Sharapova has revealed she failed a drug test at the Australian Open, and at a press conference Monday, said "I don't want to end my career this way."
Speculation that the Russian world No. 7, a five-time Grand Slam champion, would retire was fuelled when it was revealed that she would make a major announcement Monday.
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But the former world No. 1 stated at a media conference in Los Angeles that she had been notified by the International Tennis Federation of a failed test during the first major of the year in Melbourne.
Sharapova explained that she had been taking meldonium for a decade because of to health reasons and had not realized the substance was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of prohibited substances as of the start of this year.
"Thank you for being here on such short notice. I wanted to let you know that a few days ago I received a letter from the ITF that I had failed a drugs test at the Australian Open," Sharapova said. "I have to take full responsibility, because it's my body and it's what I put into my body. I can't blame anyone but myself.
"At the end of the day, everything you do is about you. I received a letter on December 22 from WADA, an email with the changes happening for next year and a link where you can press a button to check the prohibited items for 2016 and I did not look at that list."
Sharapova did not yet know what the repercussions would be, or how it would effect her career.
"I do not [know what the consequences will be]. This is very new to me. I just received the letter a few days ago and I will be working with the ITF," she said. "I do not know yet [when I can play again].
"I was first given the substance back in 2006 — I had several health issues going on at the time, I was getting sick very often ... that was one of the medications, along with several others, that I had received... I'm still working through my injury and that is the reason I withdrew from Palm Springs.
"It made me healthy and that's why I continued to take it."
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Sharapova's revelation came the same day that former European ice-dancing champion Ekaterina Bobrova, also of Russia, said that she, too, tested positive for meldonium , a heart medication.
Because of the failed test, she and partner Dmitri Soloviev — gold medalists in the team ice dancing event in 2014 at Sochi — won't compete in the world championships this month in Boston.
Meldonium was used as a popular sports supplement in former Soviet Union countries, according to The Associated Press.
Russia is currently banned indefinitely by the IAAF from all international track and field competition after it was accused of operating a vast, state-sponsored doping program in a report by a World Anti-Doping Agency commission.