Maria Sharapova News

Simona Halep has been fighting “the hardest match” of her life. Now, the former World No 1 and Wimbledon champion awaits the verdict of a three-person independent panel at the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) in Switzerland. If Halep loses, her career will be all but over, and tennis will have its biggest doping scandal since Maria Sharapova tested positive for meldonium in 2016. Halep is appealing a four-year ban imposed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after testing positive for the banned substance Roxadustat at the 2022 US Open, while investigators also found irregularities in her biological passport. Halep denies wrongdoing and has blamed contaminated nutritional supplements for the findings. The charges brought before the CAS panel are serious, however. Roxadustat is used for the treatment of anaemia, but in a sporting context is prohibited because of its capacity to boost the production of red blood cells in the body. Its effect is similar to EPO, the doping product that has plagued major endurance sports such as cycling’s Tour de France.

Caroline Wozniacki used to come to the U.S. Open all but certain that she would face one of the great players of her generation. For the former world No.

On Feb. 8, Cointelegraph released its annual Top 100 list of the most impactful heroes and villains for 2023. The list is being released in batches of 10, counting down the top players in the crypto space based on their actions and headlines in 2022 and their expected impact for 2023. So far, Cointelegraph has released numbers 81–100.

In this week’s newsletter, read about how Warner Music Group partnered with OpenSea to give artists a way to engage with their audiences. Find out how Tennis legend Maria Sharapova is exploring her growing interest in nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and check out how blockchain game Illuvium is trying to create an interoperable game. In other news, Meta enabled cross-posting for NFTs on Instagram and Facebook. And, don’t forget this week’s Nifty News featuring the Build-A-Bear Workshop entering Web3 and a CryptoPunk selling for 3,300 Ether (ETH) amid the bear market. 

Tennis legend Maria Sharapova appeared at the Binance Blockchain Week Paris 2022 to share her interest in nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

In November 2021, MoonPay announced a $555 million Series A financing round that brought the crypto payment platform's valuation to $3.4 billion. On Wednesday, the fintech company revealed that $87 million of the total $555 million came collectively from more than 60 public figures and celebrities in the music, sports, media and entertainment industries. 

Cryptocurrency payments startup MoonPay has raised $87 million from more than 60 high-profile investors including singer Justin Bieber, rapper Snoop Dogg, tennis player Maria Sharapova and actor Bruce Willis as the role of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in content creation and fan engagement expands.

MoonPay counts singer Justin Bieber (left), tennis star Maria Sharapova and others as investors.