Jwolf wrote:What bugs me about Sharapova is that she's trying to play the innocent victim, when really she got caught trying to get around the system. People seem to be believing her "it was just an honest mistake" excuse, though.
I believe her, basically because it's more plausible to me that she (along with her team) was negligent in keeping up with the changes to the regulations than it is that she was knowingly trying to cheat and not expecting to be caught. The risk vs. reward just wouldn't make it worth it, especially at this stage of her career (where she may never win another significant tournament but still had hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings available with an unsullied reputation). An analogy in our world might be our university/institutional calendars: they are constantly changing in minor ways and it's a student's responsibility to abide by the guidelines within but nobody reads these things cover to cover and it's inevitable that certain changes will catch certain people by surprise. By the way, I'm not suggesting that Sharapova should escape a serious punishment.