Maria Sharapova has been banned from playing tennis until midnight January 25, 2018. The Russian will appeal.

The problem is, these aren’t “tour” umpires. They’re nobody Futures-level or ITF-circuit or Crap-stanistak Challenger umpires.

That’s less a WTA event and more like a thrown-together f-you to the ITF.

Russian tennis was crumbling even before legendary captain Shamil Tarpischev bailed out last year in favor of new Russian captain Anastasia Myskina. The iron-handed Tarpischev always seemed to pull together the top Russians, as evident by Fed Cup titles in four of five years from 2004-08. But over the last few years, due to payout squabbles and changes in the Russian sports hierarchy, Russian Fed Cup has become a joke. All the top Russian players have again blown off this tie for Mother Russia, and the rookie captain Myskina now has at her disposal Victoria Kan (ranked No. 160), Irina Khromacheva (240), Valeria Solovyeva (247), and Veronika Kudermetova (689) in her first tie as captain. Good luck with that. Australia will post with their top player and former Slam winner Sam Stosur, in addition to Casey Dellacqua and Ashleigh Barty, and will ease into the semifinals. This is an “F” on the watchability report card.

“For possession there’s a possible two-year ban,” a spokeswoman for the International Tennis Federation said. “We know the court hearing is over and we now await a report to be sent to our Tennis Anti-Doping Program. Until then we can’t provide any further comment.”