-
Maria began hitting tennis balls at the age of four. At the age of six, she participated in an exhibition in Moscow which featured Martina Navratilova. At the age of nine, she began training at Nick Bollettieri‘s Tennis Academy. During her first two years at the Academy, she was separated from her mother Yelena due to visa restrictions and finances. Maria would travel to tournaments with her father, Yuri, and coaches Robert Lansdorp, and 1984 Australian Open boys’ doubles champion Mike Baroch. Yuri eventually replaced Baroch and Lansdorp with former ATP Top 100 player Michael Joyce, who guided Maria to 3 Grand Slam titles and the World #1 ranking (Lansdorp was quoted as saying in 2004: “I’ve never received anything from one player. Not even a $500 gift. They’re all multi-millionaires but I’ve never received one thing. And I’m telling you, if Maria doesn’t put a Mercedes convertible in my driveway, I’m going to shoot myself”. Sharapova attended Lansdorp’s 75th birthday party in 2013). Off-court, her interests include modeling, singing, jazz dancing, movies such as Pearl Harbor (2001), and reading.
-
Mariya Sharapova is a Russian former professional tennis player.
Sharapova competed on the WTA tour from 2001 to 2020 and had been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions, for a total of 21 weeks. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam. She is also an Olympic medalist, having won a silver medal in women’s singles at the London 2012: Games of the XXX Olympiad (2012). Sharapova achieved a rare level of longevity in tennis, and is considered one of tennis’s best competitors.
Sharapova became the world No. 1 for the first time on 22 August 2005, at the age of 18, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to top the singles rankings, and last held the ranking for a fifth time for four weeks from 11 June 2012, to 8 July 2012. She won five Grand Slam titles, two at the French Open and one each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open, winning 36 titles in total, including the year-ending WTA Finals in her debut in 2004. She also won three doubles titles.
Since February 2007, she has been a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, concerned specifically with the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme.
