Of adding to that tally. Shes been speaking to the bbcs laura trevelyan. Welcome to new york for a bbc news special, i am laura trevelyan. In 2016, one of the most famous names in tennis fell from grace after testing positive for a banned substance. Maria sharapova was eventually banned from tennis for 15 months after an appeal. Now sharapova has published a memoir, unstoppable my life so far. And she is back on the tennis circuit. The big question facing her can she get rid of this cloud over her career, face down criticism from rivals and climb back to the top of the sport she learned as a young child in russia . Maria sharapova, what was it like playing here in new york at the us open jsut a few weeks ago, back in the limelight after your suspension . It was amazing. An incredible moment. It started when the draw came out and ifound out i would play simona halep who was so close to the number one ranking before the tournament. I knew at what level she was competing so i immediately understood the type of level i had to produce against from the first round on and it really challenged me. Ifelt like it would be a prime time match, i had not played on arthur ashe for a few years because of the suspension and because i was injured in previous years. For many years i had not competed there and i was looking forward to that moment, just getting to the venue from the practices, everything before, the anticipation of walking through the tunnel and onto centre court, and the match itself, it was an emotional night for me as well. An incredible match, you beat the number two seed, you had a wildcard into the tournament. And you said after you want, its prime time, baby what did it mean to be there and win with the roar of the crowd under the lights . I had been training for some time and to walk onto a court like that with thousands of people, the electric crowd, the emotions, the noise, the feeling that i had walking into and was a feeling of warmth and welcome. It felt like thats a place i really must, place i belong, it has been my stage for so long and i havent felt bad experience to be in a grand slam after such a long period was very special. The fans welcomed you back with open arms, not all the players, Caroline Wozniacki said it was questionable to put you on one of the best courts for all the matches when she, the numberfive, was consigned to an outside court. What do you make of that reaction . Its one of those things i dont control the schedule and im not in the meetings doing the schedule. I can only sit back and compete where im supposed to concede. Does it surprise you, that hostility or are you used to and from other players. If it was just based on facts i would be surprised but i think their comments are not based on facts. Especially after everything i went through and a couple of trials i went through and the decision, in terms of that it does not change the way i feel going on court. Ultimately i believe i have a choice and its a choice to me to compete and play and i made that decision and i wanted for myself because i love doing this. Everything else is behind me. Lets talk about the suspension, which you talk about a lot in your book. Why did you start taking meldonium which wasnt banned at the time . After my first grand slam at wimbledon i was not very healthy for a long time. I went to see a childrens doctor in russia that my father took me to. I was still a teenager. He ran some tests, he said i had some abnormalities in my heart. That was one of the supplements he recommended i take. It was commonly used in russia. We received a certificate that it was completely legal to take for many years, ultimately it became illegal for the first few weeks of last year. See you got this e mail injanuary 2016 before the australian open, you say in the book that this is an e mail from the International Tennis federation telling you meldonium is now banned but you did not click on all the attachments. Why not . They were buried and hidden. Those are not the types of attachments that any of the players open up if you really ask them. It wasnt noticeable at all. They didnt make an effort to show us that it was a commonly used supplement in eastern europe. It should have been flagged and it wasnt. You say in the book you were careless and you did not forward the e mail to other members of your team who might have opened it, that was a very costly moment of carelessness. Yes, thats why was a big mistake and thats why i felt needed to speak openly about it in my book. It is part of my journey and my career. It was a significant part of it and wanted to share the feelings i had, the ups and downs ive faced, the vulnerability that i had to face as well with it, i think it was important. How devastating was the moment when you are banned from the sport eventually for 15 months. It was. I think the uncertainty was the emotion i had trouble dealing with because there is so much certainty in my sport and my life in terms of scheduling and knowing what to play for, what to train for. So i really missed that. I missed knowing what was ahead of me. I really didnt know. Doing that time i experienced different things, i got to be with my family, study a bit and do some internships but ultimately i missed what i did. I have a choice of not playing any more, ive achieved so many amazing things, i had the opportunity to say, it has been a great ride and this time to do other things but it never really crossed my mind. It felt good to know that i still wanted it. That there were no question marks about whether i wanted to return or not. Back to the meldonium, it has been banned from your sport because it is now regarded as a performance enhancing drug because it increases heart rate which can increase endurance and stability. But you were not taking it for that reason. The problem i have with that is that there is no proof of what it does and no one can give you proof. Yet it was banned by the governing body of the sport. I think the biggest question was what is the band based on, because athletes were taking it because its performance enhancing, which theres no proof and they have not provided it so far. Andy murray, top player, says he finds it strange that there is a Prescription Drug used to heart conditions and so many athletes at the top of the sport would have that condition. It does look suspicious, doesnt it . I dont think it is for them to have an opinion because they dont have the facts. Those are words that make headlines and they will be used as headlines but ultimately this is my career. I have faced it head on and admitted my mistake and i went about it and served my suspension and now im back. Did you ever feel you were singled out because you are russian although you have lived here all your life you have not taken american citizenship and the russians have become the poster children for doping in sport. I didnt feel that. Because i spend so much of my life in the United States and grew up training here. I never really felt, i was never much part of the federation, i was never backed by the Russian Federation from the age of six and a half i arrived in miami with my father and i trained at academies in florida throughout my childhood. I never had that association and did not feel that this was part of it. Do you feel tennis has a problem with drugs . I dont think it has a huge problem. Is the testing regimen vigorous enough . I dont know if im the right person. Have you been tested since you returned to the tour . Numerous times. Definitely. I dont know if i can be a good judge of what is enough and what isnt but i have certainly been tested many times this year and previous years, not more or less. Is a top player you must feel the pressure to always perform at the top level, to find every advantage. Does that pressure perhaps sometimes lead to misjudgements and wrongdoing . Not in your case necessarily but in the sport . Not necessarily. I dont think that can be used, my case, as an example of something that was completely legal for some many years, such a commonly used product in eastern europe. But do you think its important for tennis fans, we love to watch you and see top players, to feel trust that the player that they are seeing is a real person and not some manufactured person who is taking performance enhancing drugs . Absolutely. I think thats where the person goes and watches you compete. To see the emotion and the physical aspect and to see an athlete going through the ups and downs of the match and the victories and the losses and the upsets and then the comebacks. That is part of an athletes journey. You say in the book your reputation took a beating when this happened. Do you feel you can recover . By doing what im doing and committing myself to the sport, training and working hard, by loving what i do, i give so much to the sport and i want to because i feel i have accomplished a lot. I have inspired many young girls and boys to play the sport, to be determined, be tough. I really felt that love from them. Even during this time away from the sport the amount of people in support of me was touching on a human level. I still feel i have a lot in me from a professional point of view, and a competitive point of view. You certainly are a tough competitor as you should in the us open. Eugenie bouchard the canadian player said you were a cheat and you should not be allowed back into the sport because it sends the wrong message. Those comments are not based on fact so i dont take them into consideration. What is the fact, that you did not cheat . Exactly. Unwittingly you took a banned substance for a month in 2016 without knowing, does that make you a cheater . When you dont know that you are taking a banned substance that cant be taken into consideration. Lets talk about your path to world number one on five separate occasions. You came here at six and a half, brought by your father, speaking no english, turning up at a Tennis Academy in florida. What was that like . A crazyjourney that i share with all the readers in the book. I think that is what inspired me to write this. As i was doing a lot of interviews throughout my career, journalists asked me about my experiences as an immigrant, training, going through an academy, trying to find ways to become champion, the tough parts of it, the roadblocks, how did i get through them. As i was talking about the story they wanted to know more and they opened it up for more questions. That is when realised that my story was interesting and inspiring. It could lead to inspiring other people. I definitely faced roadblocks from a young age. Not speaking english for a start. What was it like when you turned up in florida and couldnt speak the language . Difficult. Much more difficult from my father but i was young and i took up the language fast and i was around kids that spoke english. Little children speak all the time and i learned from them. I never really went to school to study english. That was part of training, practising tennis was learning the language. And you learned from the tv. I did, i watched barney and all these little cartoons. Tell us about your dad, yuri. He seems like the classic driven tennis parent like Andre Agassis father who saw the talent and made it happen. As my father as an incredible example because the decisions he was able to make was a selfless. He did it because i was young enough to tell him, to say, i want to be a wimbledon champion. He had that vision as well but he realised i had the skill to become that and he did all he could to get me there. He knew he wasnt a coach. He didnt have the finances. So he took me to places that could help me, help bring me to the level i needed to get to. He convinced this academy to take you and through your sheer talent they did. But all the other parents and little girls were jealous of you, you say in the book. What was that like . I always felt i was the youngest one because i was, when it was time to compete, i always find myself the younger one competing against the older kids, or when i was boarding i was always younger by a few years. It was an isolated time in my life. Also you werent paying fees because of your time you were taken on for free. That made everyone mean and jealous and envious of you. Junior tennis is a cut throat world in florida. Exactly. When you are very young you dont know to what extent that goes, but when i had a coach call me up at 7pm, turned on the lights and had investors looking at my tennis game you sort of realise there is more to this than tennis, there is business surrounding it. The wheels are turning. And theres a lot of business in tennis and in other sports as well. It comes with the territory. When you were a kid in florida the williams sisters came to one of the academies that you were at, at and even then you had a huge competitive streak. Tell us about what you say in the book, about how you would not watch them like everyone else. I remember both venus and serena were coming to the Nick Bollettieri academy to practice. And all the kids were given a free afternoon to watch them practising. And my father told me, you have to watch them and study them, study their game and their focus and determination. And i said no. I dont want them to see i am studying them. I wanted to watch them but i did not want them to see me watching them. You went into a shed and watched through a peephole. Yes, there was a video shed behind the court that they were practising and i watched through this little hole, literally watching the next 25 years of my life without knowing and years later finding myself transported onto centre court at wimbledon to face serena in the final. Not face, aged 17 you beat serena in the final at wimbledon. How did she respond . It was an interesting dynamic relationship. It started when i was young and i was so inspired by what they were doing, i wanted to be both serena and venus on that stage. When i got there i was the 17 year old that had zero to lose in the match, and she was the two time defending champion coming into the tournament, everyone expected her to win. Everyone knew, everyone basically determined that she would win and i think as i won the first set, in the second set thats usually when she stepped it up. She knows, you see her determination switch. You see the switch in her eyes she is going to come back. And i really sensed during the end of that match that she wasnt going to do at that time, and i stepped it up and i was able to win it. What was that like winning wimbledon as a 17 year old . It was extraordinary. It was so special, perhaps because i never expected it to happen at that point in my life. Seeing so much of the work pay off, from a very early age, and being able to share it with my father in the stands, who continued to coach me for the next couple of grand slams that i won and then stepped down because i wanted to feel i did it on my own as well in my career, which is an important step of the process as well. You have a very antagonistic relationship with serena williams, you say in the book. You say it all stems from you beating her when you were only 17 and she expected to win. What happened in the locker room afterwards . I think the moments in the locker room after a grand slam or any other moment, after a tournament, it is such an intimate experience because there are only the athletes and when there are only two of you left in the tournament this pretty much no one around you, so you feel its you and your opponent and you are isolated and yet everyone is watching you. So i came back to the locker room, she was devastated by the loss, and i hear itand i see it. Shes crying . Yes. I think thats when i realised that there was so much on the line for her to win that match. Will it made me realise how i was able to stay calm and fearless threat that match. Every experience doing that tournament was incredible. I could have lost the semifinal, lost the final, just been a happy camper, left the tournament extremely happy. A great line in the book is that serenas strengths are like puzzle pieces that swap into my weaknesses. Is that why as a career record you have beaten her twice and she has beaten you 19 times . Last time i beat her was at end of that year. She owns that record. And yet for many years you were the highest paid female tennis player. You earned more in endorsements and serena and yet she was the better player. Why . I dont think that its for me to determine. I dont know the numbers and who is counting them. I think a lot of it is media play. Were always ranked against each other. The only rivalry we should ever have is on court because the success serena has can only help other players on the tour, the success i have off the court can only help other players. It grows the sport and makes it better, it is not about who makes moore, who makes less. The fact is that you have been one of the most successful businesswomen in tennis. Not only are you a superb player, you are a savvy businesswoman as well. Is a lot of that to do with being blonde and beautiful as well as bright . I think i am still learning how to be a better businesswoman. Ive only really known how to be an athlete from a young age. I have been very smart and had a great team around me making good decisions and thought of the Business Development aspect and the Brand Association that ive had. And a lot of it is because i have made a smart decisions, ones that revolved around my career and tennis because thats always been a number one priority. I think everyone can see that when i play. The passion with which i play and train. Everything i have had is ultimately because of my tennis. So as long as ive kept that priority at that motivation Everything Else takes care of itself. At grand slams, women players get the same amount as man, that is not true and the rest of the tour. Is it fair, should women get the as men at every level of the game . Absolutely. Why doesnt it happen . I think as women athletes we face roadblocks and in the sport of tennis, i believe Billiejean King is the pioneer of why we are even able to earn the amount we earn today. And then Venus Williams and serena also took over and really took a stance and made it happen for us, that we are close to receiving that. Yet we still face roadblocks and criticism, we still have a long way to go but we keep fighting for it and by our actions on court and our professionalism. Tell us about the grunting, one of your signature catchphrase how does it help you in your game . I wish it did, and i wish i knew it is something i have done for so long, i think the british are always fascinated by it, more so than any other place in the world, because it is a subject i have not spoken about in any other place except london. You have won five grand slams, with so many players in their 30s, the mid 30s and beyond, roger federer, venus, nadal, can you win another grand slam . I would love to. It is my goal. Its up there with a lot of other things i would like to accomplish. I been fortunate to win five majors and complete a career grand slam but in my mind i like to think that i havent won any, to have that motivation, as if i still have many more to win. In the book you say that before your suspension you were thinking about retiring. Around your 30th birthday. Whats changed. I think the understanding of the motivation that i still have, and the discipline that i still can give, and i allow myself to have. Also, the understanding of the body, as a 30 year old woman, can still do and the grind it can still take. Tennis is a very physical sport that if you treat it the right way, and also in terms of training that are so many smarter ways to train now that dont include heavyweights or Long Distance running. So a lot of that plays a big part into extending a career. You say in the book that you will play until they burn your rackets and take down the nets. Will that be you . I hope so, absolutely. Maria sharapova, thank you for talking to us. Thank you. Hello. The second half of the weekend should bring us a decent day across most parts of the country. It could be a chilly start of the day on sunday, with some mist. Later on, sunshine. A few showers, but not as many as on saturday. And not as heavy as they were, either. Low pressure still sitting to the east of the uk. High pressure moving in from the south west from the atlantic. That leaves us with a cool northerly breeze, particularly eastern scotland and north east england as well. Most of the showers on sunday morning will be concentrated across southern england. Across much of the rest of the country, quieter. Some heavy showers towards the channel isles. Inland, most places dry with clear spells. One or two patches of mist wran first thing across england and wales. Much of Northern Ireland and scotland, a dry and bright start. At a chilly start. These will warm up quickly once the sun gets going. A cool breeze across parts of eastern scotland in north east england, which could dry in a few isolated showers. Most places will be drier a good part of the day. During the afternoon, a rash of showers developing. In many parts of the country, you will avoid the showers altogether, particularly in the north and west. But we could see one or two showers towards the east. If you do catch one, it should pass through relatively quickly. During sunday evening, any of those isolated showers will largely fade away, leaving us with a fairly dry night. But you will notice that breeze on the south coast of england, drawing in one or two showers across the north sea. With clear skies and light winds elsewhere, a cool time. Temperatures will be a few above freezing in some areas, giving equal start to the working week. Monday, low pressure in east and at High Pressure in the west. With the northerly breeze feeding in, with showers and eastern showers and eastern scotland and england. Further inland, one or two isolated rogue showers popping up. Most of us avoiding them. Many of us, the weather will be dry or right. Temperatures 17 or 18 degrees in the south, but cool for newcastle and aberdeen. Those temperatures are on the rise. Goodbye for now. This is bbc news, im gavin grey. Our top stories British Police hunt for more potential suspects, after a teenager was arrested in connection with the london tube bomb. At this stage, were keeping an open mind around whether more than one person is responsible for the attack, and we are still pursuing numerous lines of enquiry, and at great pace. A Property West of london is raided as part of the investigation. It belongs to an elderly couple known for fostering children. Bangladesh imposes sweeping new restrictions on 400,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees, stopping them from travelling once they enter the country. Also in the programme a passenger backlash after europes biggest airline, ryanair, cancels up to 50 flights a day for the next six weeks