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Maria Sharapova has spoken of her desire to return to the court following the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reducing her suspension for a doping violation from 24 to 15 months.
In January, the five-time Grand Slam champion tested positive for meldonium, a heart medication that had been recently banned.
Speaking on the Charlie Rose Show in the USA, Sharapova spoke of her emotions over the past seven months and marked her return for the 2017 French Open.
She sounded very much like the woman we see on-court: a fierce, determined and uncompromising competitor who fights for every point, and in this case fought for every day in making her return.
Sharapova compared her past seven months to yet another obstacle in her life: the shoulder surgery that sidelined her for a season.
“I was born to be a warrior,” she said.
That said, the Russian said that during her time away from the game, she has enjoyed the finer things in life.
“I’ve never known what weekends feel like,” she said. “The weekends are a Grand Slam Final.”
She also had the opportunity to witness the impact she has as a role model, the respect she has gained as an athlete, and the support she has received.
“I owed it to my fans, to people that woke up in the middle of the night to watch me play,” she said of the press conference in March where she revealed her ban.
“I have impacted [the lives of] young girls and boys.”
In true Sharapova style, she vowed to return to centre court in the face of adversity as a 30-year-old athlete.
“My career was never going to end this way,” she said.
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