It’s been a week since Maria Sharapova stepped out in a hotel conference room to publicly admit that she had tested positive for a banned substance. In the days that followed, Sharapova was suspended from tennis, and she saw three of her major advertising contracts suspended as well. Fellow tennis players have been steadily throwing her under the bus, especially since her story – that she was only warned once about the usage of meldonium and she simply failed to click a link – has generally fallen apart. Perhaps Sharapova is not listening to the advice of her handlers, or maybe she just thinks she can talk her way out of trouble, but she chose to post a lengthy statement on Facebook, slamming reports that she had actually been warned five times about the meldonium ban. You can read her full Facebook post here. Here’s the most relevant portion:

A 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. That’s a distortion of the actual “communications” which were provided or simply posted onto a webpage.

I 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 Anti-Doping Programme for 2016.” I should have paid more attention to it. But the other “communications”? They were buried in newsletters, websites, or handouts.

On December 18, I received an email with the subject line “Player News” 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, anti-doping information. On that email, if a player wanted to find the specific facts about medicine added to the anti-doping list, it was necessary to open the “Player News” email, read through about a dozen unrelated links, find the “Player Zone” link, enter a password, enter a username, read a home screen with more than three dozen different links covering multiple topics, find the “2016 Changes to Tennis Anti-Doping Program and Information” link, click on it and then read a page with approximately three dozen more links covering multiple anti-doping matters. Then you had to click the correct link, open it up, scroll down to page two and that’s where you would find a different name for the medication I was taking.

In other words, in order to be aware of this “warning”, you had to open an email with a subject line having nothing to do with anti-doping, 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 find.

[From Facebook]

Girl, you’re making it worse. It’s like… pity poor Sharapova, she would have had to spend an extra ten minutes online to hunt around for information about the banned substance that she was taking. It’s not like she literally has a dozen people (probably more) around her who are employed specifically for the purpose of keeping Team Sharapova afloat. And I still have a fundamental disbelief that this information could only be found in one email, especially since the ITF (Tennis Anti-Doping Program) has made it clear that they were informing everyone on the circuit as early as last fall.

As for other Sharapova problems… The Guardian had a piece about how no one likes her on the circuit and how she’s never had any friends. The piece mimics Chris Evert’s quotes about Sharapova last week, which were: “Maria Sharapova has always isolated herself from the rest of the tennis world. She’s made that known, she can’t be friends with the players. I’m not seeing a lot of support from a lot of the players.” John McEnroe threw her under the bus too, saying: “It would be hard to believe that no one in her camp, the 25 or 30 people that work for her or Maria herself, had no idea that this happened.” But… Sharapova seems to have a notable supporter with Novak Djokovic, who publicly said he “wishes her the best.”

Last thing: French player Kristina Mladenovic let all the gossip and dirt fly this weekend. Mladenovic said:

“All the players are saying she’s a cheater. You sure doubt and think that she didn’t deserve all she won until now. That’s dreadful, but it’s good that it’s finally out. As far as I am concerned if I take an aspirin I worry 10 times about what I do. She’s been taking this drug for 10 years and it’s a serious drug. She has played with the rules and thought, if it’s not banned, then I can take it. For me that’s very disappointing… She can play with words and find a good lawyer but on the principles of the situation, she’s wrong. She has no excuse that can defend what she’s done. For me there’s no doubt. She wasn’t really liked. I respected her for her career but she wasn’t really nice nor polite, let’s be honest. At least the good news to come out of all of this is that the anti-doping programme is working and that even if you’re among the best players you’re going to get caught and it’s going to get out.”

[Via The Guardian]

Kristina Mladenovic might be my new spirit animal. What I like about all of this are the comments from seasoned professionals on the circuit, talking about how much they worry about just taking an aspirin or a decongestant. And we’re supposed to believe that Sharapova was taking this sketchy drug for a decade and never thought twice about it?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.