Maria Sharapova was just 18 when she was first dubbed world tennis number one.
In February 2020, she called time on her career after reaching that title five times, winning five Grand Slams, 36 titles, and being named the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years.
Aged 33, Sharapova said it’s time to say goodbye to the sport that "showed me the world," telling Vanity Fair she is ready to "scale another mountain, to compete on a different type of terrain."
But the tennis great’s career hasn’t just been about trophies and titles – long dubbed the "ice queen" by the world’s media – a drug scandal in 2016 saw the Russian champion’s career buckle, and since then she’s struggled to reach the same dizzying heights she once dominated.
Watch: Maria Sharapova on the loneliness of sport. Post continues below
A "lonely" childhood.
Four-year-old Maria Sharapova loved to play tennis.
Born in Russia in 1987, Maria and her father Yuri fled a tumultuous post-Soviet Russia for Florida after her parents were told of her potential in the sport, and were recommended she train abroad.
With just AUD$1,000 in his pocket, Maria and her father moved countries, leaving her mother behind. She wasn’t able to join them for more than two years because of visa restrictions.
Aged nine Maria got a scholarship to train at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, but despite her natural skill, Maria grew up physically awkward – hanging from any beam she could find to try to make herself grow.
In her memoir she ponders if her height is down to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster: her mother was pregnant with her soon after, and "continued to drink the water and eat the vegetables," she writes.
Being separated from her mum took a toll.
"I used to be so lonely. I missed my mother terribly. My father was working as much as he could so he couldn’t see me either," Sharapova recalled in her memoir Unstoppable: My life so far.
Living and training with other kids was also tough. In her book, she talks of falling asleep much earlier than the other kids who were older than her, who, when they entered the room hours later, would wake her up and order her to clean up the space.
"I learned how to take care of myself. I never thought about quitting because I knew what I wanted. When you come from nothing and you have nothing, it makes you very hungry and determined. I would have put up with much more humiliation and insults than that in order to steadfastly pursue my dream," she wrote.
Dizzying career heights.
Maria turned professional on her 14th birthday, becoming the first Russian woman to ascend to the top of the tennis rankings.
She became a global star in 2004, when she won Wimbledon aged 17, upsetting top-seeded Serena Williams.
In Vanity Fair in February 2020, Maria wrote: "I didn’t understand the magnitude of my victory until I was older — and I’m glad I didn’t," explaining that her edge in the sport was never feeling like she was superior to other players.
"It was about feeling like I was on the verge of falling off a cliff — which is why I constantly returned to the court to figure out how to keep climbing."
She won the US Open the following year, catapulting her to world number one aged 18.
Her career went from strength to strength — she won 36 tour singles titles, an Olympic silver medal, and spent 21 weeks as world number one.
According to Forbes, she was the world's highest-earning female athlete for 11 consecutive years, earning the majority of her income from endorsements with companies like Nike and Evian.
In February 2020, Maria announced her retirement from the sport, having barely played in 2019 due to shoulder injuries.
"Tennis — I’m saying goodbye," she wrote on Instagram, and in her exclusive feature story in Vanity Fair.
Her sporting colleagues are hailing her a "legend" of the sport, with Novak Djokovic telling media in Dubai she has the "mind of a champion."
"Her impact on the sport, not just women's tennis, but tennis in general, was great. It still is great," he said.
Fellow tennis star and Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova, wrote on Twitter: "It was a pleasure to share the court with you @MariaSharapova. We always had great battles when we played and I have so much respect for your hard work and the way you always fight for everything."
He's the owner and co-founder of Paddle8, an online auction platform for art and collectables, and was on the list of 100 Most Powerful People in the Art World three years consecutively.
"To the kindest and most professional person I know, here is to you Maria, and all that awaits you in your next chapter! May you continue to inspire us all with your deep humility, self-deprecation, strength and focus. As a remarkable first chapter closes with so many extraordinary fetes, we look forward to all that you will accomplish with equal grit in the years to come. Proudly and lovingly," he wrote on Instagram as news of Maria's retirement broke in February 2020.
The couple announced their engagement in December 2020.
"Thank you for making me a very very happy boy," Alexander said on Instagram. "I look forward to a lifetime of loving you, and learning from you @MariaSharpova."
Sharapova added: "I said yes from the first day we met. This was our little secret, wasn’t it @gilkesa."
Life after tennis.
In 2012, Maria opened her own candy company called "Sugarpova," which she opened to reflect her "sweet side."
"My dad would reward me with a lollipop or chocolate after a long day of practice," the athlete and entrepreneur explained on her candy company's website.
Speaking to CNBC she explained that she started to think about life after tennis as early as 2008 when she suffered a shoulder injury that sidelined her.
"I was 21 years old, I didn’t know if I’d be able to play again," she told the broadcaster in 2015. "[It was the] first time I really started thinking about business and my own ventures."
Today, the athlete’s candy and chocolate line is available in 22 countries and Maria still incorporates a fun mix of tennis and sport into her designs and packaging, from her "sporty mix" to serving truffles in tennis ball containers.
Proceeds from the company go to the Maria Sharapova Foundation — a charity set up to help victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident from which her parents fled.
As she told CNBC in 2015: "[By 21] I had made enough money to not have to work for the rest of my life and be able to support my family and be very happy."
Numerous sources report her current net worth is sitting at around $135 million, which equates to AUD $206 million.
Feature Image: Getty.
This post was originally published on February 27, 2020, and updated on December 18, 2020.
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Top Comments
Sorry: not disappointed. She's the one who normalised the shrieking that so many players engage in today, and she would have been fine taking medication for her supposed heart condition if her doctors had cleared it with WADA. She's done a bit more than Anna Kournikova who I think was also the highest earning female athlete of her time - but let's face it, it wasn't for their sporting achievements but for the way they look.
Actually the shriekers are dwindling in the game, it's now possible to watch tennis with the sound on again, with the exception of a few old school players