Maria Sharapova has been banned for two years from Tennis

The former world No. 1 in singles will be taking a break from tennis.

On Wednesday morning, Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova received a two-year ban for doping by the International Tennis Federation. Sharapova, 29, failed a doping test at January's Australian Open, testing positive for Meldonium, a drug that can help an athlete's endurance and rehabilitation. (It had not been a banned substance in the tennis world until this year.)

During a news conference in March, Sharapova revealed she had taken the recently-banned drug for the past decade. "I did fail the test and I take full responsibility for it," she said. The International Tennis Federation temporarily suspended the five-time Grand Slam champion as a result.

Since the scandal, fellow tennis stars have offered words of support.

"I think most people were happy that she was upfront and very honest and showed a lot of courage to admit to what she had done and what she had neglected to look at in terms of the list at the end of the year," Serena Williams said at a March press conference.

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Background info about Maria Sharapova

Sharapova became the world No. 1 for the first time on August 22, 2005, at the age of 18, and last held the ranking for the fifth time for four weeks from June 11, 2012, to July 8, 2012.Her 35 singles titles and five Grand Slam titles—two at the French Open and one each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open—rank third among active players, behind Serena and Venus Williams. She won the year-ending WTA Finals in her debut in 2004. She has also won three doubles titles.

Despite an injury-prone career, Sharapova has achieved a rare level of longevity in the women's game. She has won at least one singles title a year from 2003 until 2015, a streak only bested by Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, and Chris Evert. Several tennis pundits and former players have called Sharapova one of tennis's best competitors, with John McEnroe calling her one of the best the sport has ever seen.

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Sharapova has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She appeared in many advertisements, including those for Nike, Prince, and Canon, being the face of several fashion houses, most notably Cole Haan.

Since February 2007, she has been a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, concerned specifically with the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme. In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time[8] and in March 2012 was named one of the "100 Greatest of All Time" by Tennis Channel. According to Forbes, she has been named highest paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years and earned US$285 million including prize money since she turned pro in 2001.

In March 2016, Sharapova revealed she had failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open, admitting to testing positive for meldonium, a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) at the start of 2016. On June 8, 2016, she was suspended from playing tennis for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).