Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer has severed ties with Maria Sharapova as the grand slam champion started to count the cost of a failed drug test and likely ban from tennis.
Sports firm Nike and German luxury car maker Porsche also said they were suspending their relationships with the former world number one as the 28-year-old Russian awaits a decision on whether she will be banned.
The failed drug test at January’s Australian Open, one of four annual grand slam events, will be costly for her at a time when sports bodies and sponsors are taking a tough line following a series of corruption and doping scandals.
Sharapova earned $65 million last year, Forbes reported, and most of it came from endorsements, appearances and royalties rather than her victories on court.
She was world’s highest-paid female athlete last year for the 11th consecutive year, and Forbes put her off-court career earnings at more than $440 million.
“We’re now entering a zero tolerance era for sponsors,” said Rupert Pratt, co-founder of sports sponsorship agency Generate. “It is now seen as not acceptable to ‘stand by your man’ because of the amount of scrutiny corporates are now under.”
Sharapova, who lit up women’s tennis when she won Wimbledon in 2004 as a 17-year-old and is still ranked among the world’s top players, announced yesterday she had tested positive for meldonium, which is used to treat diabetes and low magnesium.
She said she had been taking the substance for a decade for health reasons and had not read an email informing her that a ban on its use in sport, imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), had come into force on 1 January.
She will be provisionally suspended from playing tennis from 12 March and could be prevented from competing for Russia at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
It followed Nike, the world’s largest sportswear maker, which said it was “saddened and surprised” by the news when it announced it was putting ties with the player on hold.
Another sponsor, cosmetics maker Avon Products Inc, declined to comment on its endorsements.
Sharapova, who lives in the United States, is the seventh athlete in a month to test positive for meldonium.
She said her family doctor had been giving her mildronate, also called meldonium, for 10 years after she frequently became sick, had irregular EKG results, a magnesium deficiency and a family history of diabetes.
“It is very important for you to understand that for 10 years this medicine was not on WADA’s banned list and I had been legally taking the medicine. But on January the 1st, the rules have changed and meldonium became a prohibited substance.”
Sharapova competed in one tournament while using meldonium as a banned substance.
“I made a huge mistake. I know that with this I face consequences and I don’t want to end my career this way,” she said.
Russia’s tennis chief leapt to the player’s defence, and said he expected her to compete at this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio.
“I think this is just a load of nonsense,” Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpishchev said. “The sportsmen take what they are given by the physiotherapists and by the doctors.”