Buried at the bottom of a Facebook post Friday - which was ostensibly aimed at clarifying what she's deemed misreported facts about her meldonium use and failed drug test - Maria Sharapova seemed to stop just short of throwing other offenders under the bus.
"I'm proud of how I have played the game," Sharapova wrote. "I have been honest and upfront. I won't pretend to be injured so I can hide the truth about my testing."
It's possible, of course, that Sharapova was just making a plain-faced statement about what she isn't doing. But the specificity of the denial suggests she may be alluding to other players who've feigned injury to cover up a failed test in the past.
The implication would be an indictment not only of whichever unidentified player(s) Sharapova is referring to, but of tennis' governing body, which would have to be complicit in such a cover-up.
There's been at least one recorded instance of such a cover-up taking place. Andre Agassi famously admitted in his autobiography, "Open," to snorting crystal meth during the 1997 season. He wrote in the book that despite failing a drug test, the ATP accepted his (false) explanation, and agreed to sweep the incident under the rug. Until the book was published, nothing about Agassi's failed test was made public.
