Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova at the begining of her career
playing tennis
2001
Maria Sharapova lifts the DFS Clasic Trophy after her final against Jelena Jankovic in 2005
Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom
2005 Wimbledon
Melbourne, Australia
Australian Open 2007
2008
US Open 2005
Paris, France
2010 French Open - Day Three
Auckland, New Zealand
Maria Sharapova of Russia celebrates a point during her match against Greta Arn of Hungary during day four of the ASB Classic at ASB Tennis Centre on January 6, 2011 in Auckland, New Zealand.
Maria Sharapova Night Outfit for US Open 2012
2013
Melbourne, Australia
Maria Sharapova of Russia celebrates winning her semifinal match against Ekaterina Makarova of Russia during day 11 of the 2015 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 29, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia.
2004 WTA Championships Final against Serena Williams
Hollywood, California, United States
Maria Sharapova accepts the award for 'International Female Athlete' onstage during the 2007 ESPY Awards at the Kodak Theatre on July 11, 2007
Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"
Maria Sharapova during her childhood
Maria Sharapova at the begining of her career
playing tennis
Maria Sharapova lifts the DFS Clasic Trophy after her final against Jelena Jankovic in 2005
Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom
2005 Wimbledon
Melbourne, Australia
Australian Open 2007
US Open 2005
Paris, France
2010 French Open - Day Three
Auckland, New Zealand
Maria Sharapova of Russia celebrates a point during her match against Greta Arn of Hungary during day four of the ASB Classic at ASB Tennis Centre on January 6, 2011 in Auckland, New Zealand.
Maria Sharapova Night Outfit for US Open 2012
Melbourne, Australia
Maria Sharapova of Russia celebrates winning her semifinal match against Ekaterina Makarova of Russia during day 11 of the 2015 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 29, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia.
2004 WTA Championships Final against Serena Williams
Hollywood, California, United States
Maria Sharapova accepts the award for 'International Female Athlete' onstage during the 2007 ESPY Awards at the Kodak Theatre on July 11, 2007
Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"
Sharapova with her parents
Sharapova and her father
Adam Levine
Maria Sharapova and Charlie Ebersol
Sasha Vujacic and Maria Sharapova
Rick Macci
(From the five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, the...)
From the five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, the candid, captivating story of her rise to tennis stardom
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374279799/?tag=2022091-20
2017
Ethnicity:
Her parents, Yuri and Yelena, are from Gomel, Belarussian SSR. Concerned about the regional effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, they left their homeland shortly before Maria was born.
Maria Sharapova was born on 19 April 1987 to Yuri and Yelena in the Nyagan town of Russia.
In 1994, Sharapova moved from Russia to the United States of America along with her father to enroll at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida. Her mother had to stay back in Russia as she did not get visa and joined them after two years.
Maria Sharapova was not granted admission to Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy immediately as she was too young to join it. She initially took up tennis training at the Rick Macci Tennis Academy and later signed a deal with the International Management Group (IMG), a global sports and talent organization based in New York.
In 2001, at the age of 14, Sharapova turned pro. At the time, women’s tennis was shifting to a power game, which suited Sharapova’s dominating style of play and her size; she eventually reached a height of 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 metres). In 2003 she competed in every Grand Slam event, with her best finish coming at Wimbledon, where she reached the fourth round. That year she won her first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) titles, at Tokyo and Quebec City. In 2004 she defeated Serena Williams in the final at Wimbledon to win her first Grand Slam. The following year Sharapova was ranked number one for the first time in her career, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. In 2006 she won the latter event, and in 2008 she claimed her third Grand Slam, at the Australian Open.
Later that year, however, Sharapova was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff, an injury that eventually required surgery. She returned to the court in mid-2009, and over the next two seasons she claimed several WTA titles, though a Grand Slam championship eluded her; Sharapova’s best result occurred in 2011, when she lost the Wimbledon finals. She returned to form in 2012, however, winning the French Open to become just the seventh female player in the Open era to complete a career Grand Slam. That year she also captured a silver medal at the London Olympic Games. After a solid start in 2013—highlighted by an appearance in the French Open final, which she lost to Williams—a shoulder injury forced Sharapova to miss the last six months of the season. She returned to competitive play in 2014, and later that year she won the French Open, her fifth Grand Slam.
In March 2016 Sharapova revealed that she had taken meldonium (marketed as Mildronate)—a heart medication that had recently been added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances—during the Australian Open earlier in the year. Three months later she was suspended from tennis for two years by the International Tennis Federation for her meldonium-induced failure of a drug test. (Her suspension was reduced to 15 months upon appeal.) Sharapova returned to the WTA tour in April 2017. Later that year she published the memoir Unstoppable: My Life So Far (written with Rich Cohen).
(From the five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, the...)
2017Maria Sharapova appears to be an Eastern Orthodox Christian. She shows every sign of being deeply religious. She said in one interview that the one piece of jewelry she never takes off is the cross that her parents gave her when she was a young girl.
She also credits God with giving her the talent she was able to develop through dedication and hard work. She said, "What tennis has brought me has been incredible. God gave me a talent, but it was up to me to play my part in it. I don’t believe in just God-given talent, you have to work for everything you earn and I think the combination has helped me."
Sharapova doesn’t get involved in the political scene in either the country of her residence, the U.S., or the country of her birth, Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently a fan of hers, however. In 2012 he publicly congratulated her talent and skill after she won the French Open that year. And Sharapova expressed her pride at being Russian. She didn’t necessarily express pride at having Putin as her president, but she didn’t seem to be involved in the anti-Putin protests either.
The issue closest to Sharapova’s heart is a nuclear disaster. Her parents lived in Gomel, Belarus during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, but left while her mother was pregnant with her in order to escape the fallout. And in 2007, the tennis champion joined up with the United Nations to help alleviate on-going effects suffered by those who still live in that area–one of whom is her grandmother.
In light of the Japanese nuclear disaster in 2011 and the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl, Sharapova wants everyone to know that the effects of such an incident last for decades:
[E]ven though something like that happened such a long time ago, it still causes many people on a daily basis [health risks]. Especially kids that were born [then], and now are having kids. You also find that they have something in their body that’s not allowing them to live a normal life from the pollution.
So even though she’s not involved in the partisan, it looks like this is an issue for which she’ll be advocating for a long time to come.
Quotations:
"I want to be different. If everyone is wearing black, I want to be wearing red."
"I still love things that you don't even need to pay for. Going to the beach and being around five of your friends and having a good time means so much more than going out and spending hundreds of dollars."
"It's easy to impress me. I don't need a fancy party to be happy. Just good friends, good food, and good laughs. I'm happy. I'm satisfied. I'm content."
"I'm an athlete. I go out there and fight my heart out."
"There are so many roads you can take that will lead you the wrong way, that nobody will hear your name."
"You have your bad moments in your career and your good moments. And it's been a good ride so far, but it's not over yet."
"I have had lots of luck in my career but there has also been a lot of hard work."
"There are days when I go out on the court and I feel like I can't miss a ball."
"Sometimes when you're putting the work in it just seems so, so hard, and you never know when that work's going to pay off."
"I have a Russian heart."
"I heard endless conversations between my parents when I was going to sleep about how we would survive, how we would continue. All of them were about trying to make me better."
In 2007, Maria Sharapova became the goodwill ambassador of the UNDP. The Maria Sharapova Foundation in collaboration with the UN is working towards helping children around the world achieve their dreams.
Maria Sharapova possesses a great talent for creativity and self expression, typical of many accomplished writers, poets, actors and musicians. She is also witty, owns the gift for gab, and savors the limelight.
She is full of energy, always on the go, fidgety, and quite hyperactive. Life is in a constant motion for her and she devours it powerfully.
Physical Characteristics: Her height is 1.88 m.
Quotes from others about the person
L. Jon Wertheim: "Maria Sharapova is her own empire. She herself personally makes more in revenue than the entire WTA tour."
Ashley Wagner: "Years ago, I tore out a Nike ad featuring Allyson Felix and Maria Sharapova looking super fierce and tough. I always told my family that I wanted to be like them someday, so to come home to my apartment and see boxes of Nike gear stacked higher than my doorknob is pretty much a dream come true."
Maria Sharapova dated singer Adam Levine in 2005 but the couple split after a short while.
In 2008, she had a short-lived relationship with TV producer Charlie Ebersol.
In 2009, she began dating Slovenian basketball player Sasha Vujacic and the couple announced their engagement in 2010. However, Maria Sharapova announced the end of the relationship in 2012.
He is an American singer, songwriter and actor.
He is an American television and film producer and director, based out of Los Angeles.
He is a Slovenian professional basketball player.
He is a United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA) Master Professional, and seven-time USPTA national coach of the year who has trained five number one ranked players—Andy Roddick, Jennifer Capriati, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams.
