Switzerland: Maria Sharapova’s doping ban cut to 15 months - CAS

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) shortened Maria Sharapova’s ban to 15 months, allowing her to begin to compete from April 26, 2016, in Lausanne on Tuesday.
Matthieu Reeb, Secretary General of CAS, stated that "the Court of Arbitration for Sport has decided to reduce the period of suspension of Maria Sharapova from 2 years to 15 months beginning on the 26th January 2016."
He added, "The CAS arbitrators considered that Miss Sharapova bore some degree of fault as she and her entourage failed to make sure that the substance contained in a product that she had been taking for a long period of time remained incompliance with the entire doping regulations. Consequently the CAS panel determined the proper sanction was a suspension of 15 months starting from the 26th January 2016."
The Russian tennis player was banned from tennis by the ITF (International Tennis Federation) for two years in March after testing positive for meldonium at the Australian Open in January. She appealed the decision in June. WADA alerted athletes that the substance also known as mildronate was to become prohibited as of January 1, 2016 after making the decision to add it to the banned list on September 16, 2015. The five-time Grand Slam winner said that she had been taking medicine containing the substance, which had been given to her by her family doctor, for the past 10 years.