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The situation of Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova is "bad" and "very doubtful" after she tested positive for the banned substance meldonium and she may never play again, R-Sport news agency quoted Shamil Tarpishchev, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation, as saying on Thursday.
The five-times Grand Slam champion stunned the world in March when she said she had returned a positive test for meldonium, a Latvian-made heart medication which was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA's) banned list from January 1.
Later in the day Tarpishchev, however, backtracked on his comments, saying he did not mean to suggest that Sharapova's failed doping test could spell the end of her career.
"I only said that she can't play now because no ruling on her case has been issued," Tarpishchev told the Tass news agency.
Sharapova, the world's highest-paid sportswoman, claimed to have been taking meldonium on doctor's orders for 10 years and had failed to note that it had become a banned substance until hearing of her failed test at the first Grand Slam of the year.
She was provisionally suspended on March 12 pending an International Tennis Federation anti-doping hearing, which was scheduled to take place in London on Wednesday, British media reported, with the Russian facing a possible ban of up to four years for failing a drugs test at the Australian Open.