Maria Sharapova

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova, Мария Юрьевна Шарапова, IPA:  born April 19, 1987 is a Russian professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. Sharapova has won 23 WTA singles titles, including 3 Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open. She has also won the year-end invitational WTA Tour Championships in 2004.

The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on 4 separate occasions. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on Aug 22, 2005 and last regained this ranking for the fourth time on May 19, 2008. She is currently ranked World No. 6.

Sharapova made her professional breakthrough in 2004 when, at age 17, she upset two-time defending champion and top seed Serena Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final for her first Grand Slam singles title. She entered the top ten of the WTA Rankings with this win. Despite not winning a major in 2005, Sharapova briefly held the number one ranking, and reached three Grand Slam semifinals, losing to the eventual champion each time. She won her second major at the 2006 US Open defeating then-World No. 1 Amélie Mauresmo in the semifinals and World No. 2 Justine Henin in the final. Sharapova's 2007 season was plagued with a chronic shoulder injury, and saw her ranking fall out of the top 5 for the first time in two years. She ultimately won her third Grand Slam at the 2008 Australian Open, defeating Henin in the quarterfinals and Ana Ivanović in the final. After reclaiming the number one ranking in May 2008, Sharapova's shoulder problems re-surfaced, ultimately requiring surgery in October and forcing her out of the game for nearly ten months. Sharapova returned in May 2009 and was ranked No. 126 in the world due to her extensive lay-off. Since her comeback, Sharapova has won 4 singles titles (bringing her career total to 23) and improved her ranking to within the top 10.

Sharapova's public profile extends beyond tennis, as she has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She has featured in many advertisements including those for Nike, Prince and Canon and is the face of several fashion houses, most notably Cole Haan. Sharapova was the most searched-for athlete on Yahoo! in both 2005 and 2008. Since February 2007, she has been a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, concerned specifically with the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme.

Early life

Sharapova was born in 1987 to Yury and Yelena, ethnic Belarusians, in the town of Nyagan' in Siberia, Russia. Her parents moved from Gomel, Belarus after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 affected the region. When Sharapova was two, the family moved to Sochi where her father befriended Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny would go on to win two Grand Slam singles titles and became Russia's first ever World No. 1 tennis player. Aleksandr gave Sharapova her first tennis racket at the age of four, where upon she began practicing regularly with her father in a local park. She took her first tennis lessons with veteran Russian coach Yuri Yutkin, who was instantly impressed when he first saw her play, noting her "exceptional hand-eye co-ordination.

At the age of seven, Sharapova attended a tennis clinic in Moscow run by Martina Navrátilová, who recommended professional training at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida, which had previously trained players such as Andre Agassi, Monica Seles and Anna Kournikova. With money tight, Yuri was forced to borrow the sum that would allow him and his daughter, neither of whom could speak English, to travel to America, which they finally did in 1994. Visa restrictions prevented Sharapova's mother from joining them for two years. Arriving in Florida with savings of USD 700, Sharapova's father took various low-paying jobs, including dish-washing, to fund her lessons until she was old enough to be admitted to the academy. In 1995, she was signed by IMG, who agreed to pay the annual tuition fee of $35,000 for Sharapova to stay at the academy, allowing her to finally enroll at the age of 9.

Tennis career

Inconsistency

Sharapova began her 2010 season with an exhibition match in Hua Hin, Thailand against Venus Williams and won 6–4, 6–3. Sharapova then played another exhibition, the team event Hong Kong Tennis Classic where she represented and was Captain of Team Russia. She won her first singles match against Zheng Jie 6–7(5), 6–4, 6–2 and then teamed up with Yevgeny Kafelnikov to win the doubles match 6–4, 7–5 against Ayumi Morita and Paradorn Srichaphan of Team Asia Pacific. Sharapova then defeated World No. 4 Caroline Wozniacki 7–5, 6–3 in the final against Team Europe.

After playing two exhibition tournaments in Asia, Sharapova officially began her season at the Australian Open, where she was upset in her first round match that lasted more than 3 hours, losing 6–7(4), 6–3, 4–6 to Maria Kirilenko who reached the quarterfinals of the tournament. The loss meant that for the first time since 2003, Sharapova had lost her opening match at a Grand Slam event.

Immediately bouncing back, she competed in the Cellular South Cup. She defeated Shenay Perry 6–0, 6–2; Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6–1, 6–1; 8th seed Elena Baltacha 6–2, 7–5 and 5th seed Petra Kvitová 6–4, 6–3 to reach the final where she beat Sofia Arvidsson 6–2, 6–1 to win her 21st career WTA title and first of the year.

At the BNP Paribas Open, Sharapova came back from 4–6, 2–5 down to defeat Vera Dushevina 4–6, 7–5, 6–2 in the second round, but then lost in the third round 3–6, 6–2, 3–6 to Zheng Jie, aggravating a bruised bone on her right elbow in the process, which resulted in her eventual withdrawal from the Sony Ericsson Open, and the Family Circle Cup.

Coach-change and return to the top 10

It was announced that Sharapova would bring in Thomas Hogstedt as a coach for the 2011 season, joining Michael Joyce. On December 5, Maria played an exhibition match against World No. 2 Vera Zvonareva in Monterrey, Mexico. She went on to win that match 6–1, 7–5.

Sharapova would quickly confirm that her first tournament of the year would be at the 2011 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, held from January 4 to 9. She also announced that she would be leading the Russia Fed Cup team against France in February in their first-round tie.

In her first ever official Australian Open warm-up tournament at the 2011 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, she was seeded 1st. Sharapova beat Alberta Brianti 6–2, 6–3 and Renata Voráčová 6–3 7–5, before being defeated by the Hungarian veteran and eventual champion Gréta Arn, 2–6, 5–7. After the ASB Classic Sharapova decided to take a hiatus from Joyce's coaching, despite having worked together for a number of years including during her successful years where she became a multiple grand slam champion.

Sharapova participated in the first grand slam of the season at the Australian Open, where she was the 14th seeded player. She made it into the second round after beating former doubles partner, Tamarine Tanasugarn 6–1, 6–3. Sharapova then defeated Virginie Razzano in round two 7–6(3), 6–3. In the third round she faced Julia Görges. After a minor delay due to an under-court air bubble which prevented the ball from bouncing at a certain spot on the court, Sharapova advanced to the fourth round by winning 4–6, 6–4, 6–4. In the fourth round, she displayed her on-going inconsistency, hitting many unforced errors and double faults, and was upset by Andrea Petkovic 2–6, 3–6.

Sharapova's next appearance would be at the 2011 Fed Cup tie against France, which she lost to Virginie Razzano 3–6, 4–6 in another match of inconsistency.

Sharapova then withdrew from the 2011 Open GDF Suez in Paris because of viral illness. She also had to pull out of premier 5 2011 Dubai Tennis Championships and 2011 Qatar Ladies Open due to an ear infection.

Sharapova returned to the tour in March by taking part in the first premier mandatory tournament of the year, the 2011 BNP Paribas Open, where she was seeded 16th. After a first round bye she defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues, 7–5, 6–7(3), 6–1 to set up a clash with 20th seed Aravane Rezai, who she defeated 6–2, 6–2. She then faced fellow compatriot and former World No. 1 Dinara Safina who she dispatched in under an hour with a scoreline of 6–2, 6–0. Her last victory in the tournament was over Shuai Peng 6–2, 5–7, 6–3 in the quarter-finals to reach the semi-finals. She then lost to World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki 1–6, 2–6 due to hitting a myriad of unforced errors. With this result, Sharapova returns to the top 10 for the first time since February, 2009.

Sharapova's next tournament would be at the second premier mandatory tournament, the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Miami. As she was the 16th seed, she received a bye to the second round where she dismissed Petra Martic 6–3, 6–2 in a little over an hour. In the third round, she won convincingly against Sabine Lisicki 6–2, 6–0 in a 58 minute match where she won 10 consecutive games to advance to the fourth round. She defeated World No. 4 Samantha Stosur, 6–4, 6–1 and improving her lopsided head-to-head to 7–0. This victory marks her first top five win since defeating Ana Ivanović in the 2008 Australian Open final. In the quarterfinals, she defeated 26th seed Alexandra Dulgheru in an epic match that lasted 3 hours and 28 minutes, which is the longest match of her career, and though twisted her left ankle while serving at 5–5 in the third set, she finally prevailed 3–6, 7–6(6), 7–6(5). In the semifinals, she defeated Andrea Petkovic 3–6, 6–0, 6–2, avenging her loss at the 2011 Australian Open. In the final, her shaky and error-prone form due to exhaustion led her to a one-sided loss to Victoria Azarenka, 1–6, 4–6, despite a late comeback in the second set. By reaching the semifinals, she guaranteed her return to the top 10 for the first time since February 1, 2009.

Fed Cup participation

Sharapova has lived in the United States since moving there at the age of seven, but retains her Russian citizenship, and is therefore eligible to play in the Fed Cup for Russia. However, the behavior of Sharapova's father during her matches on the WTA Tour, combined with a perceived lack of commitment by her to the Fed Cup, has made her selection for the Russian Fed Cup team cause controversy in the past.

After Sharapova had beaten fellow Russian Anastasia Myskina at the 2004 WTA Tour Championships, Myskina criticized Sharapova's father, saying: "He was just yelling and screaming instructions to her and I thought he just might jump right on the court at one point in the match." At the Fed Cup semi-finals two weeks later Myskina stated she would stop playing for Russia if Sharapova joined the Russian team the following season: "If she joins our team next season you won't see me there for sure. His behaviour is totally incorrect, simply rude. I don't want to be around people like him." Larisa Neiland, assistant to Russia Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev, added: "Her father's behaviour (at the WTA Tour Championships) was simply outrageous. I just don't see how he could work with the rest of us." However Tarpishchev himself played down the problem, insisting: "I feel that things will calm down soon and we'll have Myskina, Sharapova, Kuznetsova and everyone else playing for Russia.

At the end of 2005, Sharapova stated she was now keen to make her Fed Cup debut and was set to play against Belgium in April 2006, but withdrew. Sharapova later withdrew from ties against Spain in April 2007 and against the United States in July 2007 because of injuries. The latter withdrawal led to Russia's captain saying she would be "ineligible for selection" for the Fed Cup final in September.However, Sharapova attended the final, cheering from the sidelines and acting as a "hitting partner" in practices, resulting in some of her Russian teammates implying that she was attending only to enable her to play at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (rules state that players must have "shown commitment" to Fed Cup in order to play). Svetlana Kuznetsova said, "She said she wanted to be our practice partner but if you can't play how then can you practice?"

Sharapova finally made her Fed Cup debut in February 2008, in Russia's quarterfinal tie against Israel. She won both her singles rubbers, against Tzipora Obziler and Shahar Pe'er, helping Russia to a 4–1 victory. For the semifinals, she was given permission to skip the tie, with Tarpishchev announcing that she will be on the team for the final. However, the date of the final coincided with the lay-off from her shoulder injury, and thus she did not play.

Playing style

Sharapova is an aggressive baseliner, with power, depth, and angles on her forehand and backhand. Additionally, she is one of the few players on the WTA who uses the reverse forehand a lot. Instead of using a traditional volley or overhead smash, she often prefers to hit a powerful "swinging" volley when approaching the net or attacking lobs. Sharapova is thought to have good speed around the court, especially considering her height. At the beginning of 2008, some observers noted that Sharapova had developed her game, showing improved movement and footwork and the addition of a drop shot and sliced backhand to her repertoire of shots. Despite her powerful game, Sharapova's greatest asset is considered to be her mental toughness and competitive spirit, with Nick Bollettieri stating that she is "tough as nails". At the 2010 French Open, Hall-of-famer Martina Navratilova said of Sharapova, "with her, it's not over until she's shaking hands. Sharapova is known for on-court "grunting", which reached a recorded 101 decibels during a match at Wimbledon in 2005. During her second round match in Birmingham in 2003, Sharapova was asked to tone down the level of her grunt after opponent Nathalie Dechy complained to the umpire, with Sharapova's response saying that her grunting was "a natural instinct. Monica Seles suggested that grunting is involuntary and a part of tennis. When questioned by the media about her grunting, Sharapova urged the media to "just watch the match. Her defensive game has been worked on by her new coach, and this has reflected in her results, making consecutive semi-finals at premier mandatory events on the tour.

Serve

Towards the beginning of her career, Sharapova's first and second serves were regarded as powerful,and she was believed to possess one of the best deliveries on the Tour.Since the beginning of 2007, however, problems with her shoulder have reduced the effectiveness of her serve. The shoulder injury not only resulted in her inconsistent first serves, but also her hitting high amounts of double faults. Two-time US Open singles champion Tracy Austin believes that Sharapova often loses confidence in the rest of her game when she experiences problems with her serve and consequently produces more unforced errors and generally plays more tentatively,while tennis writer Joel Drucker remarked that her serve was the "catalyst for her entire game", and that her struggles with it left her "unmasked.

In her return from layoff in 2008 to 2009, she used an abbreviated motion, which was somewhat less powerful, and though producing aces but also very high number of double faults. After her early loss at the 2009 US Open, Sharapova returned to a more elongated motion, similar to her pre-surgery serve. She has since been able to produce speeds greater than before, including a 121 mph serve hit at the Birmingham tournament in 2010 – the fastest serve of her career.

Since her coach change in 2011, she has been much more consistent with her serves, reducing the amount of double faults she would produce in addition to consistently serving 70–80% of first serves in. She improved her serve by working on the placement of her serve. This is evident in her matches between the 2011 BNP Paribas Open to present.

Surfaces

Because she predicates her game on power, Sharapova's preferred surfaces are the fast-playing hard and grass courts, as evident through her 21 victories on hard court and grass court. This is most notable when she won the 2004 Wimbledon and 2008 Australian Open crowns, where she had her career breakthrough and played her peak tennis level, respectively.

Sharapova, however, is not as well-suited to the slower clay courts as she is on hard and grass courts. Sharapova has admitted that she is not as comfortable with her movement on clay compared with other court surfaces and once described herself as like a "cow on ice" after a match on clay, due to her inability to slide. Despite this, she has shown improvement on this surface with respect to experience, as evident with her first WTA red clay title at the 2010 Internationaux de Strasbourg, 7 years since playing on the WTA circuit. Less than a year later, she won her biggest red clay title at the Tier I 2011 Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

Ground strokes and net-play

Sharapova is also known for her phenomenally accurate and powerful groundstrokes. She has a powerful forehand which tends to set up points and create successful winners. Sharapova occasionally utilizes a reverse follow-through on her forehand, similar to that of Lindsay Davenport and Rafael Nadal, which allows her to hit the ball later than normal and add top-spin, while it can also lead to timing issues resulting in errors. The backhand, although not as dominant in setting points up, is her more reliable shot with many tennis analysts[who?] considering this to be her best asset, and one of tennis' great shots. Her net play is good when on the attack, often she will choose to drive the volley instead of slice volleys, but this is not seen as a strength—this seems to be continually worked on.

Outside tennis

Sharapova has lived in the United States since moving there at the age of seven. She has a home in Manhattan Beach, California. Sharapova lists fashion, movies, music and reading the Sherlock Holmes and Pippi Longstocking series as among her off-court interests, while she has also talked in the past about how she takes hip-hop dance classes. Sharapova has a Pomeranian named Dolce, which means "sweet" in Italian.

At the 2004 US Open, Sharapova, along with several other Russian female tennis players, wore a black ribbon in observance of the tragedy after the Beslan school hostage crisis, which took place only days before. In 2005, she donated around US$50,000 to those affected by the crisis. On February 14, 2007, Sharapova was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and donated US$210,000 to UNDP Chernobyl-recovery projects. She stated at the time that she was planning to travel back to the area after Wimbledon in 2008 though it didn't happen as she had to travel back to the US because of shoulder injury. She fulfilled the trip in late June – early July 2010. With Haynes, Kirilenko, Vaidišová, Stubbs, President Bush and Capriati, Sharapova participated in an exhibition in Tampa in December 2004, raising money for the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund.

Sharapova helped to promote the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

In July 2008, Sharapova sent a message on DVD to the memorial service of Emily Bailes, who had performed the coin toss ahead of the 2004 Wimbledon final that Sharapova had gone on to win.

Sharapova has often implied that she desires an early retirement. Following the retirement of 25-year-old Justine Henin, Sharapova said, "If I was 25 and I'd won so many Grand Slams, I'd quit too. In an interview after the 2008 Australian Open, she balked at the idea of playing for another ten years, saying that she hoped to have a "nice husband and a few kids" by then.

Sharapova is engaged to Slovenian professional basketball player Sasha Vujačić (Saša Vujačič, Саша Вујачић), who plays for the New Jersey Nets. The two have been dating since 2009.

Sharapova is a stamp collector and has a "huge collection" compiled since she was a child.

Endorsements

Sharapova's tennis success and appearance have enabled her to secure commercial endorsements that greatly exceed the value of her tournament winnings. In April 2005, People named her one of the 50 most beautiful celebrities in the world. In 2006, Maxim ranked Sharapova the hottest athlete in the world for the fourth consecutive year. She posed in a six-page bikini photoshoot spread in the 2006 Valentine's Day issue of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, alongside 25 supermodels.

In a poll run by Britain's FHM magazine, she was voted the seventh most eligible bachelorette, based on both "wealth and looks."

Sharapova used the Prince Triple Threat Hornet for part of 2003 and then used several different Prince racquets until the US Open. She gave the racquet she used in the 2004 Wimbledon final to Regis Philbin when taping Live with Regis and Kelly. Sharapova began using the Prince Shark OS at that tournament and had a major part in the production of the Shark racquet.[citation needed] She then switched to the Prince O3 White racquet in January 2006. Because of Sharapova's various shoulder injuries, she switched to the Prince O3 Speedport Black in July 2008. In January 2011 it was announced that Sharapova would endorse Head racquets and use the Head YOUTEK Radical Midplus.

Sharapova signed a sponsorship deal in January 2007 with Gatorade and Tropicana.

In June 2007, Forbes magazine listed her as the highest-paid female athlete in the world, with annual earnings of over US $26 million, the majority of which was from endorsements and sponsorships. In a later interview, she said, "You know, one of the greatest things about being an athlete and, you know, making money is realizing that you can help, you know, help the world, and especially children, who I absolutely love working with.

In 2007 Sharapova was featured in a number of Canon USA's commercials for the PowerShot.

Sharapova has also been depicted in many tennis-related video games, along with such players as Daniela Hantuchová, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams and Anna Kournikova. Some of the titles include the Top Spin series, Virtua Tennis series, and Grand Slam Tennis.

Upon hearing that Sports Illustrated had named her in 2006 as the world's best-paid female athlete, Sharapova said, apparently only a little tongue-in-cheek, "It's never enough. Bring on the money. There's no limit to how much you can make.

In January 2010 it was announced that Sharapova had renewed her contract with Nike, signing an 8 year deal for $70 million. This is the most lucrative deal ever for a sportswoman, dwarfing the previous record, which was Venus Williams' $43 million deal with Reebok.

Wealth

In July 2008, as a result of her success both on and off court, she was the world's highest-paid female athlete, earning US $26 million.

In January 2010, she signed an eight-year Nike contract, worth $70 million.

In August 2010, Maria Sharapova was once again named the world's highest-paid female athlete by Forbes, earning $24.5 million.