Maria Sharapova’s lawyer, John J. Haggerty, expressed his confidence that the Russian would have her two-year ban reduced in the upcoming months on Wednesday after his client was handed the maximum sentence for her crime by the ITF.

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Haggerty expects an appeal to take place within the next month and a half, and he believes that the ITF has been making a case out of Sharapova because of her worldwide notoriety. He also added that he was pleased that the ITF ruled that Sharapova unintentionally committed her violation,

“We always viewed this as a two-step process – ITF first then CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) for a final decision,” Haggerty said, according to the UK Guardian. “So while I am pleased with the ITF’s unanimous ruling about Maria’s lack of intent to violate the rules, I am disappointed that the ITF tribunal gave Maria an unfairly harsh suspension because she is such a famous athlete and they wanted to make an example out of her.

“I believe that at CAS, which is made up of an arbitrator selected by Maria, one selected by the ITF and a neutral arbitrator selected by CAS, Maria’s suspension will be reduced and she will return to tennis sooner.”