NIKE has suspended its sponsorship deal with Maria Sharapova after the tennis star revealed she had failed a drugs test.
Other sponsors may now also examine their lucrative contracts with the Russian after she tested positive for newly-banned substance meldonium at the Australian Open.
In a statement, the US sportswear giant said: “We are saddened and surprised by the news about Maria Sharapova.
“We have decided to suspend our relationship with Maria while the investigation continues.
“We will continue to monitor the situation.”
Sharapova is the highest-paid female athlete on the planet, with estimates earnings of £20.7million in 2015 – largely through associations with a number of high-profile brands.
The 28-year-old also profits from deals with the likes of American Express, Porsche, Tag Heuer, Evian and Avon.
Sharapova’s relationship with Nike stretches back to when she was 11 years-old.
In 2010, the former World No 1 signed a new eight-year contract with the company worth almost £50m as well as a cut on sales of her own branded clothes.
Last month, Nike dropped Manny Pacquiao after the boxer said homosexuals were “worse than animals”.
The company also severed ties with drugs cheat Lance Armstrong as well as Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius.
Sharapova — a five-time Grand Slam champion — now faces a ban of up to four years which would all but end her life as a professional athlete.
She will be provisionally suspended from the sport on 12 March.
But Russian tennis chief Shamil Tarpishchev expects Sharapova to represent her country at this summer’s Olympics in Rio — calling talk of a ban “a load of nonsense.”
Speaking to the country’s TASS news agency, he claimed: “The sportsmen take what they are given by the physiotherapists and by the doctors.
“I think Sharapova will play at the Olympics, however, we will need to see how this will develop.
“I think this is just a load of nonsense.”
On Monday, Sharapova admitted: “I made a huge mistake. I let my fans down and I let the sport down. I take full responsibility for it.
“I know that with this I face consequences and I don’t want to end my career this way.”
Meldonium was developed to treat patients with chronic heart failure and angina and has also been found to help control diabetes when used with other drugs.
But the World Anti-Doping Agency put it on the banned list from January 1 this year after finding it was being used widely to boost endurance and recovery.
Sharapova said she had been taking it for a decade — after being prescribed it by her doctor — but had failed to read a WADA email saying it was now prohibited.
Although meldonium is freely available in her native Russia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe, America’s Food and Drug Administration has never approved it for use there.
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