At the age of three, Sharapova moved with her family to the resort town of Sochi, beginning to play tennis at the age of four, using a racquet given to her by Yevgeny Kafelnikov's father. At age five or six, at a tennis clinic in Moscow, Sharapova was spotted by Martina Navratilova, who urged her parents to get her serious coaching in the United States.
In 2004, 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.
Maria Sharapova currently uses the Prince o3 White Racket and consequently the popularity of the racket has gone through the roof.
A 6 ft 2 in., Sharapova is regarded by many as possessing a natural beauty and figure and has done some modeling in November 2003 with IMG Models. She enjoys fashion and is known to read celebrity magazines. However, she says she does not want to overdo these activities, preferring to focus on her tennis. She is often compared to Anna Kournikova, also a Russian, a Bollettieri student, and a model. However, Sharapova, Bollettieri, and Kournikova all reject the comparison.
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, with a victory at the WTA Season-Ending Championships and consistent results.
In November 2004, Sharapova signed a deal to represent Canon Inc. and promotes both their cameras and office products.
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 proved to be a simple enough task at first, with Sharapova sailing through to the semi-finals with ease 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 in one of the most thrilling and masterful displays of power and accuracy seen in the women's game. Sharapova's streak on grass was ended, as was her quest for the No. 1 ranking, with Lindsay Davenport, who lost a historic match to Venus Williams in the 2005 Wimbledon final, holding firm.
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. Sharapova's reign was short-lived, lasting only a week after 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 streak 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 Amelie Mauresmo.
In February 2006, Sharapova featured in a six-page bikini photoshoot spread in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue annual magazine which debuted on Valentine's Day, along with 25 other scantily-clad supermodels. Sharapova joined the ranks of other athletes who have previously appeared in the publication.
On March 18, 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 is her first title in 2006 and the 11th in career. Sharapova is 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.
FHM Magazine ranked Sharapova eighth among the "100 Sexiest Women in the World" in its 2006 List, up from her 36th placement in the previous year's edition.
Education
Sharapova studies via correspondence on the internet with the Keystone High School home schooling program and has a liking for sociology. As of 2004, she is in her second year of high school at 17 years of age. (source: Inside Tennis magazine, Sept. issue)
Awards
2003
WTA Newcomer of the Year
2004
WTA Player of the Year
WTA Most Improved Player of the Year
WTA Player Service
2005
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
Quotes
- "Tennis gets me worked up. It's a drive! I forget about everything while playing and I don't care a damn about what is going on out of court".
- "I’ve been playing against older and stronger competition my whole life. It has made me a better tennis player and able to play against this kind of level despite their strength and experience".
- "I don’t follow other players or the tournaments they play. I have my own schedule and do my own thing".
- "I'm not the next anyone, I'm the first Maria Sharapova."
- "So this is just tennis. You wake up, you either step on your right foot or your left, and, you know, hopefully you step on your right."
- "In a few years, hopefully, the stories won't be about my grunting or my looks, but about me being a great tennis player. With Monica Seles, everyone started talking about her being a big grunter, but who cares now that she grunts? When she walks on court, everyone thinks she's a champion."
- "People always ask about young people like me being forced into things. I play tennis because I love it. I think Russians might be tougher than other people. When I arrived in America I was young, but I already knew what I wanted. I think that when you start from nothing, when you come from nothing, it makes you hungry. I am proud of where I came from and I know what I want. I want to win."
- "Well, I mean, why would you want to be No. 20 and then when you get to No. 20 it's like you don't want to be No. 1, you know? It's like shoot for the moon. If you miss, you'll still be among the stars, so..."
- "Well, you can't win every single day, that's just a fact. You know, it's impossible to win every single match, and it's one of those days where, you know, they lost. And, I mean, everyone's going to have a moment like that. There's only one winner in a tournament. So out of how many people in this draw, they're all going to be considered losers and only one's the winner. Unfortunately, that's just the sport we're in where, you know, you're either the winner, but the chance of that is slim, you know (laughing)."
- "I definitely feel Russian inside, even when I'm in America I feel Russian,"
- "It's good to finish the year with a win. But I didn't want to win like that."
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