Maria Sharapova announced Monday that she failed a drug test at this year's Australian Open, where she'd reached the quarterfinals before losing to Serena Williams. Sharapova said she received a letter from the International Tennis Federation on March 2 that said she'd tested positive for meldonium, a drug she says she's been taking since 2006. The drug, which is also known as mildronate, became illegal for pro tennis players on January 1, and Sharapova said that while she received an email from the World Anti-Doping Agency about changes to its tennis program, she did not look at it. (via)
y'all probs heard about serena's unflattering rolling stone interview, in which she ALLEGEDLY did a little bit of victim-blaming re: the steubenville rape case. but that's small potatoes in comparison to some shit-talking she did about an unnamed (maria sharapova) fellow competitor:
"There are people who live, breathe and dress tennis. I mean, seriously, give it a rest." Serena exits the car and the conversation moves on to a top-five player who is now in love. "She begins every interview with 'I'm so happy. I'm so lucky' – it's so boring," says Serena in a loud voice. "She's still not going to be invited to the cool parties. And, hey, if she wants to be with the guy with a black heart, go for it." (An educated guess is she's talking about Sharapova, who is now dating Grigor Dimitrov, one of Serena's rumored exes.)
in the words of joel: "OOOooohhhhHHhHhhh GURRRLLLLL." sharapova took a moment to respond when she told reporters:
"Obviously I have a tremendous amount of respect for Serena and what she's achieved on the court," Sharapova said. "If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship and her boyfriend that was married and is getting a divorce and has kids. Talk about other things, but not draw attention to other things. She has so much in her life, many positives, and I think that's what it should be about."
advantage: SHARAPOVA!!
but THEN, it seems, serena remembered that she is a lady, or she got scared that maria might have some more things to say:
But even though Williams never acknowledged it was Sharapova she was talking about, Williams said she was "told of the comments," and chased Sharapova down at a party to apologize, probably for fear of another Russian left hook. She chose to squash the budding tennis beef rather than respond. "I made it a point to reach out to Maria as well, because she was inadvertently brought into the situation by assumptions made by the reporter," she said. "I personally talked to Maria at the player party, incidentally. I said: 'Look, I want to personally apologize to you if you are offended by being brought into my situation. I want to take this moment to just pour myself, be open, say I’m very sorry for this whole situation.'"
jicydak, serena has beaten sharapova in their last 12 meetings, and the last time maria won was over NINE years ago. so now you have a reason to follow the ladies' side of the bracket this wimbledon.
Maria Sharapova just dominated a cute little Bulgarian in her first round at Arthur Ashe stadium. Her tennis was good, but no one could stop talking about her outfit. She helped design the dress with Nike, and wore Frank Gehry earrings from Tiffanys. She said her inspiration in designing the garment was.... architecture!!!
one of the perks of being unemployed is that you get to watch the french open on tv every day. maria sharapova is playing, and she hasnt won a single game yet (6-0, 4-0 at press time). her opponent, something about cibulkova, is hopping around all over the place and maria sharapova looks like she's about to take a nap right there on the clay.
joel is watching from the isle of manhattan and we were discussing that maybe maria sharapova should put her pomeranian, dolce, in to play in her stead. he's got plenty of pep.
side note: in case you missed it this weekend, top-seeded 4-time french open champion rafael nadal got owned by 2Pz new fave, robyn soderling. it's not spelled like that, but he's swedish like robyn so that's how we'll be spelling it.
