Maria Sharapova

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Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (IPA: [ʃʌˈrapəvə]; Russian: ; born April 19, 1987) is a former world number one professional tennis player and the Highest paid female athlete. Her parents are originally from Gomel, Belarus, but moved to Russia in 1986, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Sharapova was born in Nyagan, Russia, the following year. She now lives in the United States, but retains Russian citizenship.

Early life

Barely able to make ends meet, Sharapova's parents took a risk. Sharapova and her father traveled to Florida to enroll at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. A visa problem meant a two-year separation between Sharapova and her father in America, and her mother in Russia.

To pay for her school fees, her father worked at several jobs at one time. A full scholarship granted by International Management Group made life more comfortable for the father and daughter.

Career

In 2004, after a spectacular run, which included three-set wins over Ai Sugiyama (5-7, 7-5, 6-1) and Lindsay Davenport (2-6, 7-6, 6-1), Sharapova became the third youngest Wimbledon women's champion (after Lottie Dod and Martina Hingis) and second youngest in the Open Era by defeating defending two-time champion Serena Williams in straight sets (6-1, 6-4). She also became the first Russian ever to win that tournament. Sharapova followed it up with a victory at the season-ending WTA Championships, defeating Serena Williams again by a score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. In the final set, she came back from a defecit of 4-0.

From June 2004 until her Wimbledon semi-final appearance in 2005, Sharapova had a 22-match winning streak on grass, including back-to-back Birmingham titles and the Wimbledon crown. Sharapova's huge success continued after winning Wimbledon. In November 2004, she signed a deal to represent Canon Inc. and promotes both their cameras and office products.

Maria Sharapova at Indian Wells in 2005

In April 2005, Sharapova was listed by People Magazine as among the 50 most beautiful celebrities in the world. In June 2005, Forbes magazine listed Sharapova as the highest-paid female athlete in the world, with annual earnings of $18 million. A significant portion of this amount came from endorsements.

Defending her Wimbledon title in 2005 looked to be a simple enough task at first, with Sharapova sailing through to the semi-finals without losing a set. However, she dropped her first set of the tournament against a rejuvenated Venus Williams and lost the match 6-7 1-6. Sharapova's streak on grass was ended, as was her quest for the No. 1 ranking, with Lindsay Davenport, who lost an historic match to Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final, retaining that position.

However, a back injury that Davenport sustained in the Wimbledon final meant that she could not defend her titles won during the US hard court season of 2004. Because of this, she lost valuable ranking points. Sharapova was also suffering from an injury and did not complete a tournament during the season, but she had fewer points to defend and therefore rose to the No. 1 ranking on August 22, 2005. Her reign lasted only a week when Davenport re-ascended after winning the New Haven title. Sharapova rose to the No. 1 ranking again on September 12, 2005 despite losing in the semi-finals of the US Open.

Her loss in the semifinal of the 2005 US Open against Kim Clijsters marked the fourth time that season that she lost at a Grand Slam tournament against the eventual champion: Australian Open-SF-Serena Williams, French Open-QF-Justine Henin-Hardenne, Wimbledon-SF-Venus Williams, US Open-SF-Kim Clijsters. That record was broken in January 2006, when Sharapova lost in the Australian Open semi-final to Justine Henin-Hardenne. Henin-Hardenne went on to lose in the final of the Australian Open to Amélie Mauresmo.

On March 18, 2006, Sharapova, as No. 3 seed, claimed her first title of the year at the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells (a Tier 1 event), defeating No.4 seed Elena Dementieva in the final, 6-1 6-2. This was the 11th title in career. Sharapova was the first Russian to reach the final of the Pacific Life Open. As Dementieva reached the final later, surprisingly defeating Justine Henin-Hardenne, this was the first-ever all-Russian final at this Tier I tournament. Soon after, Sharapova had a run at the Nasdaq-100, which included a thrilling win over Tatiana Golovin, whom she beat 6-3, 6-7, 4-3 when Golovin retired with an ankle injury. She lost in the final, though, to Svetlana Kuznetsova by a score of 4-6, 3-6. She then took 2 months off because of an ankle injury, which included pulling out of events in Rome and Istanbul, coming into the French Open with no clay-court warm up.

Despite her injury, Sharapova finally decided to participate at the 2006 French Open. After saving three match points in the first round against Mashona Washington, Sharapova was eliminated in the fourth round by Dinara Safina, the sister of Marat Safin. She blew a lead of 5-1 in the third set, and lost 18 of the last 21 points to lose by a score of 5-7, 6-2, 5-7. She welcomed the onset of the grass season, but failed to add a third successive Birmingham title to her collection, when she lost in the semi-finals to Jamea Jackson.

Sharapova is currently ranked at number 4 in the world, and was seeded fourth for the 2006 Wimbledon event. She was defeated 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in her semi-final match against the current world number 1, Amélie Mauresmo, who went on to win the tournament.

Education

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Quotes

• "She is beautiful. Like a princess on the court." - Roger Federer
• "She may grunt and screech but she is a top player and the most stunning girl ever to play this game." - John Lloyd
• "Will you marry me, Maria?" - Andy Roddick

Awards

2003

• WTA Newcomer of the Year

• WTA Player of the Year
• WTA Most Improved Player of the Year
• WTA Player Service

• ESPY Best Female Tennis Player
• Named Russia's tennis federation as the country's best female player for the year
• Awarded the honorary Master of Sports of Russia title

Trivia

• In 2006, Maxim magazine named her the hottest current athlete.

• Says what she enjoys most about being a professional tennis player is the travelling/getting to meet new people and see new cultures. [link]

• Is good friends with fellow Russian tennis player Maria Kirilenko, despite not getting along with many of the other female Russian tennis players. [link]

• Is affectionately called "Masha".^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

• Is currently single. (Stated by herself on Total Request Live)

• Is ambidextrous, and was undecided about which hand to use dominantly up until her professional tennis career began. [link]

• In June 2006, Maria appeared in a commercial for ESPN's This is SportsCenter campaign. In the commercial, she is walking past Stuart Scott's desk when he stops her. He offers her a can of tennis balls he received from a supplier. She says that the can is filled with paper "worms" and that she doesn't want it. Stuart acts offended, causing Maria to feel bad. She obliges to take the can, opens it, and paper worms fly into her face. She angrily walks away and throws the can back at Stuart after he asks for it back. This commercial is a sequel to a similar one featuring Roger Federer.
• Never one to stay quiet on court, perhaps one of the most unusual aspects of Sharapova's game is her trademark on-court "grunting", or "screaming". Quite possibly the loudest female screamer since Monica Seles, Sharapova's on-court grunts have been measured at 102.12 decibels — apparently as loud as a police siren. Sharapova claims that this is just part of her game and that only the British press give her a hard time about it. Elena Dementieva, Sharapova's opponent in the Wimbledon 2006 quarter-final, is the latest player to complain about the distraction it causes.

Sponsors

• Land Rover - she gets a fee, a free Land Rover Range Rover Sport in Florida, and a chauffeured Discovery where ever she wants [link]
• Motorola - a fee, plus a mobile phone and all her mobile phone bills paid, plus a share of the income of downloads from [HelloMoto/Maria]
• TAG Heuer - a fee plus free watches

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (1)

Serena Williams

WTA Tour titles (14)

Singles (11)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	Sep 29, 2003	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Aniko Kapros (Hungary)	2-6 6-2 7-65
2.	Oct 27, 2003	Quebec City, Canada	Hard	Milagros Sequera (Venezuela)	6-2 retired
3.	Jun 7, 2004	Birmingham, Great Britain	Grass	Tatiana Golovin (France)	4-6 6-2 6-1
4.	Jun 21, 2004	Wimbledon, London, Great Britain	Grass	Serena Williams (USA)	6-1 6-4
5.	Sep 27, 2004	Seoul, South Korea	Hard	Marta Domachowska (Poland)	6-1 6-1
6.	Oct 4, 2004	Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Mashona Washington (USA)	6-0 6-1
7.	Nov 8, 2004	WTA Championships, Los Angeles, USA	Hard	Serena Williams (USA)	4-6, 6-2, 6-4
8.	Feb 6, 2005	Tokyo, Japan	Carpet	Lindsay Davenport (USA)	6-1 3-6 7-65
9.	Feb 21, 2005	Doha, Qatar	Hard	Alicia Molik (Australia)	4-6 6-1 6-4
10.	Jun 6, 2005	Birmingham, Great Britain	Grass	Jelena Jankovic (Serbia & Montenegro)	6-2 4-6 6-1
11.	Mar 18, 2006	Indian Wells, USA	Hard	Elena Dementieva (Russia)	6-1 6-2

Singles finalist (4)

• 2004: Zurich (lost to Alicia Molik)
• 2005: Miami (lost to Kim Clijsters)
• 2006: Dubai (lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne)
• 2006: Miami (lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova)

Performance timeline

Famous matches

• 2003 Birmingham quarter-final: defeated Elena Dementieva, 2-6 7-6(4) 6-2. As a qualifier, Sharapova reached the tournament's semi-final, defeating top-seeded Dementieva along the way. Although she lost in the semis to Shinobu Asagoe, she has began to elicit the media attention, not just because of her model looks as compared to Anna Kournikova, but also because of her grunts. Fellow players and spectators had complained of her boisterous style. [link] Still, she followed this up with a fourth round showing at Wimbledon, equaling the best performance by a female wildcard in the tournament's history.
• 2004 Wimbledon semi-final: defeated Lindsay Davenport, 2-6 7-6(5) 6-1. The 13th seed Sharapova faced fifth seed Davenport in a match of youth versus experience. Sharapova was overwhelmed by the veteran in the first set, and was trailing 3-1 in the second set before she turned the match around, after a drizzle interrupted it. Although she was three points from defeat in the tiebreak, Sharapova fought back, consolidated her position to take the second set and cruise through the third. [link]
• 2004 Wimbledon final: defeated Serena Williams, 6-1 6-4. Sharapova faced the top seed in the final. She defeated the two-time defending champion in [one of the most stunning upsets in Wimbledon history]. In doing so, she became the second youngest women's Wimbledon champion in the Open Era, and the first non-American victor since Jana Novotna won in 1998.
• 2004 Tour Championships final: defeated Serena Williams, 4-6 6-2 6-4. Sharapova became the second player to win the Year-End Championships in her debut. Trailing 4-0 in the third set, Sharapova won the next six games after Williams began to struggle with an abdominal muscle strain. She finished the year ranked number four. Albeit her tournament run was characterized by controversy, marred by accusations of other Russian players that she had received coaching during matches, as well as some critics' reaction to her fist-pumping attitude in the final, as Williams suffered from her injury.
• 2005 Australian Open semi-final: lost to Serena Williams, 6-2 5-7 6-8. Continuing a seeming rivalry, Sharapova served for the match during the second and third set, even holding triple match point in the latter. However, Williams came back to take the match and win the tournament. [link]
• 2005 Indian Wells semi-final: lost to Lindsay Davenport, 0-6 0-6. Despite holding a 2-0 head-to-head record, Sharapova, then ranked number three in the world, was dealt her worst defeat as Davenport double bageled her. This marked the first time that a player in the top three was double bageled.
• 2005 Wimbledon semi-final: lost to Venus Williams, 6-7(2) 1-6. The match was billed as one of the best in years. The high quality match up featured long rallies, high-intensity groundstrokes just clipping the lines, and dramatic grunts. In the end, Williams beat the defending champion, ending Sharapova's 22-match grass court winning streak. [link] [link]

References

• "[Maria puts world domination on hold]". (Nov. 11, 2005). New Straits Times, p. 42.

External links