By Chris Oddo | Tuesday September 13, 2016

 

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will announce its decision on Maria Sharapova's appeal in the first week of October.

Photo Source: AP

Three months ago Maria Sharapova appealed the two-year drug suspension that the ITF handed out in June, hoping to get back to tennis before the imposed date of January 26, 2018. Today, the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that it would hand out its decision on Sharapova’s appeal during the first week of October.

Here is the official statement from the CAS:

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will issue its decision in the arbitration procedure between Maria Sharapova and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) during the first week of October 2016. On 9 June 2016, Maria Sharapova filed an appeal against the decision issued on 6 June 2016 by a Tribunal appointed by the ITF. In her appeal to the CAS, Ms Sharapova seeks a reduction of the Tribunal’s decision to sanction her with a two-year period of ineligibility further to an anti-doping rule violation. The final award will be published on the CAS website together with a media release.

“Today with their decision of a two year suspension, the ITF tribunal unanimously concluded that what I did was not intentional,” she wrote. “The tribunal found that I did not seek treatment from my doctor for the purpose of obtaining a performance enhancing substance. The ITF spent tremendous amounts of time and resources trying to prove I intentionally violated the anti-doping rules and the tribunal concluded I did not. You need to know that the ITF asked the tribunal to suspend me for four years – the required suspension for an intentional violation -- and the tribunal rejected the ITF’s position.”