Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova has won various honors throughout her career, including the 2012 and 2014 French Open and a silver medal in women's singles at the 2012 Olympics.

Maria Sharapova was born on April 19, 1987, in Nyagan, Russia. She started playing tennis at an early age and turned professional at the age of 14. Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004 against Serena Williams and has gone on to win the U.S. Open and Australian Open. In 2012, she won the French Open, becoming the 10th woman to complete a career Grand Slam. At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games—Sharapova's Olympic debut—she won a silver medal in women's singles, losing the gold to American tennis star Serena Williams.

Tennis player Maria Sharapova was born on April 19, 1987, in Nyagan, Siberia, Russia. Sharapova began playing tennis as a young child, and at age 9 was taken by her father to Florida, where she enrolled at a tennis academy.

harapova turned professional at 14, claimed her first WTA victory at the 2003 AIG Japan Open and also reached the fourth round at Wimbledon on her first attempt during the same year. Success came in 2004 when she won the singles title there, becoming Russia's first woman Wimbledon champion. At the end of 2004 she added the WTA Championship title to her achievements. She was ranked No. 4 at the start of 2006 and that year won the U.S. Open.

In 1993, Maria was attending a tennis exhibition tournament in Moscow when Martina Navratilova noticed her potentiality. The tennis legend afterwards suggested Youri to put her under the training of Nick Bollettieri at his prestigious academy in Bradenton, Florida, U.S., since she believed that it would be the best place for the little girl to develop her skills. After some consideration, Youri finally decided to follow Navratilova's advice, therefore taking Maria to U.S. even though he basically could not speak English nor brought enough money to support their live there. Upon their arrival in the academy, one of its coaches agreed to check her out. She successfully impressed the man as she recalled: “Then I hit a few balls and he called Nick right away.” Sensing the amazing talent she possessed, Bollettieri put her in despite the complaints of other parents who considered the foreign girl was too young and not talented enough.

While Maria studied tennis with persistence, Youri restlessly worked all kinds of jobs to pay her training cost so both of them seldom met each other. Moreover, Yelena was unable to come to U.S. because of visa restrictions and the family's financial situation until the next couple years. This condition certainly made her quite depressed as she has admitted: “I didn't see my mum for two years and I barely saw my dad for one year. I was living in a dormitory by myself and sacrificed a lot of things.” Fortunately, things turned better as her excellent advancement drew the attention of International Management Group (IMG) thus granted her a full scholarship. All of her restlessness ultimately could be put behind when Yelena at last could land her feet safely in U.S. Maria afterwards set to prepare herself to enter tennis tournament. By 1997, she had already ventured into prestigious competition at Eddie Herr International Junior Championships in 14-and-under division.

Maria finally earned her first trophy by winning the singles at Angela Maria Lopera in October 2000. The thirteen-years-old girl quickly gained the second one, being the G16 Singles Winner at Eddie Herr International Junior Championships in only a month after her initial triumph. On April 19, 2001, she turned professional and made her debut at an ITF event in Sarasota on April 29. Although she lost to Karin Lynn Miller in the round of 32, she satisfyingly scored superb attainment in the junior tournaments during the year, collecting four trophies in singles. Under the coaching of her own father and Robert Lansdorp, Maria's star shone brighter by the year of 2002. After obtaining the Target Cup at the Nasdaq-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, she got her first triumph in pro as she won ITF Championship in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. To everyone's awe, she swept two more trophies at the same competition in Vancouver and Peachtree City.

Fully concentrated on pro, Maria continued to impress people with her brilliant skills by 2003. She claimed her first WTA singles title as she became the winner of Japan Open in October. In the same competition, she also was triumphant in double, sharing her winning with Tamarine Tanasugarn. Within 2 months, she added one more trophy as she beat Milagros Sequera in the final of WTA Championship held in Quebec City. This particular year also marked her first entry to Grand Slam, competing at Australian Open on January. She created sensation when she successfully went to the fourth round of the prestigious Wimbledon in July before lost to her compatriot, Svetlana Kuznetsova. This achievement certainly made her tennis rank rapidly ascended to the 32nd. She began the year of 2004 joining the Champions' Challenge exhibition-tournament in Hong Kong. Only a little bit close to be the winner, she was severely beaten by Venus Williams in the final.

After competing at Australian Open, Tokyo Pan Pacific Open, and WTA Championship in Memphis, Maria's rank quickly rose to 22nd. She afterwards entered French Open and was successful to strive to the quarterfinal, but sadly was forced to end her journey there in Paola Suarez's hand. However, her loss was paid off as she won the singles and doubles titles at WTA Championship in Birmingham. In July, she landed her feet at Wimbledon with her 15th rank. Placed on 13th seed, she convincingly made her way to final, facing Serena Williams who at that time was the 1st seed. Scoring 6-1 6-4, she gloriously won the reputable grand slam singles title. Not only became the third-youngest women's singles champion in Wimbledon history, she also was the lowest seed ever to win this title. In the meantime, her triumph boosted her career as she was placed in the 6th of WTA Singles Rankings at the end of the year.

Maria's tennis skills developed extremely well by 2005. From all the tournaments she was in, she was always successful to enter at least the quarterfinals. She added one more winning after defeating Alicia Molik in the final of WTA Championship in Doha, Qatar. In June, she was able to repeat her triumph at WTA Championship in Birmingham, but she failed to do the same at Wimbledon as she surrendered to Venus Williams in the semi-final. Reaching the 2nd rank, she was about to take over the number one place when she joined JPMorgan Chase Open in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, her right pectoral muscle injury had prevented her to proceed to the semifinal. It forced her to withdraw from the competition, letting her opponent to have a walkover. Due to her condition, this striking athlete also had to cancel her appearance at Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada.

Beyond her career as a professional tennis player, Maria turns out to be very concerned about the world matter. In December 2004, she showed up on a tennis exhibition in Tampa to do charity for the Florida Hurricane Relief Fund. In the same month, she also took part in an exhibition match in Bangkok and contributed in tsunami relief by giving a large sum of money. In the following year, she donated value of a Porsche Cayenne which she won at the 2004 WTA Tour Championships to those who have been affected by the Beslan Russian school hostage crisis. Her achievement in tennis mixed with her beauty has directed her to be a spokesperson for many popular brands, namely Speedminton, Motorola, Parlux Fragrances, Canon, TAG Heuer, Honda Japan, and Colgate-Palmolive. The shy little girl absolutely has transformed into one of tennis icons in the world.

In 2007, a shoulder injury sidelined Sharapova and contributed to a series of losses, but she was still ranked among the Top 5 women's tennis players at the end of that year. Her shoulder injury continued to plague her game, sidelining her in 2008. In 2009, Sharapova had surgery to repair the injury and after a year of rehabilitation and a string of losses, she started to make a comeback in 2011 when she finished the year ranked No. 4, her first Top 5 finish since 2007.

In June 2012, Sharapova defeated Sara Errani in the women's French Open, becoming the 10th woman to complete a career Grand Slam, winning all four major tennis tournaments.

At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games—Sharapova's Olympic debut—she won a silver medal in women's singles, losing the gold to American tennis star Serena Williams. Sharapova came in second to Williams the following year at the French Open. She lost the singles titles to Williams in the final. That June, Sharapova made a less-than-impressive showing at Wimbledon. She only made it as far as the second round of competition.

In June 2014, Sharapova regained momentum when she won her second French Open title against Simona Halep. After advancing to the final of the 2015 Australian Open, she then lost in the fourth round at the French Open, her earliest exit from the tournament since 2010.

Off the court, Sharapova's beauty and popular appeal have led to major commercial endorsements with companies including Nike and Tiffany & Co. Sharapova began a relationship with Slovenian professional basketball player Sasha Vujacic in 2009. After a year of dating, the couple announced that they were engaged in October 2010. During a post-match conference at the 2012 U.S. Open, she announced that the engagement was off and that her relationship with Vujacic had ended.