Tennis Hall of Famer Jennifer Capriati has some thoughts on the news of Maria Sharapova’s failed drug test, which the Russian tennis star revealed in a press conference on Monday.
After the surprise announcement, Capriati, whose own career ended in 2004 due to a slew of injuries, unleashed a wide-ranging tweet storm of anger and frustration over Sharapova’s use of Mendonium to supposedly gain a competitive edge. Whatever the reason Sharapova used the drug—she claims it was prescribed in response to several ailments she had been experiencing—it’s worth noting that she did nothing illegal until after the drug was banned on January 1 of this year.
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Here Capriati appears to be referring to several controversies in her own life, including drug addiction, an ex-boyfriend who alleged she stalked and attacked him, and some help from line judges (as opposed to drugs).
Back to Sharapova:
This kind of thing always tends to happen when a notable athlete gets tagged for using performance-enhancing drugs. Older players who maybe got forced out before they were ready—either by their own bodies, or the teams they played for—often vent about “back in my day.” And back in their day, they always did everything on the level and it really chaps their asses that the younger, more highly compensated versions of themselves take the shortcuts. This has happened forever—we just get to see it more now because everyone’s on Twitter.
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