Maria Sharapova

Tennis careerMaria Yuryevna Sharapova (born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis player.

Early life

Maria Sharapova was born on 19 April 1987, in Nyagan, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Her parents, Yuri Sharapov and Yelena, are from Gomel, Byelorussian SSR. Concerned about the regional effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, they left their homeland shortly before Maria was born.

Introduction to tennis

In 1990, when Sharapova was three, the family moved to Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia. She hit her first tennis ball when she was 4 years old. Her father, Yuri, befriended Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny would go on to win two Grand Slam singles titles and become Russia's first world No. 1 ranked tennis player. Aleksandr gave Sharapova her first tennis racquet in 1991 when she was four, whereupon she began practicing regularly with her father at a local park. Maria took her first tennis lessons with veteran Russian coach Yuri Yutkin, who was instantly impressed when he saw her play, noting her "exceptional hand-eye coordination"

Tennis career

2003: First tournament titles

From 2003, Sharapova played a full season and made a rapid climb into the top 50 by the end of the year. She made her debuts at both the Australian Open and the French Open, but failed to win a match in either. Then, as a wildcard at Wimbledon, she defeated 11th seed Jelena Dokić, her first win over a top-20 player, to reach the fourth round, where she lost in three sets to Svetlana Kuznetsova. By the end of September, Sharapova had already captured her first WTA title at a smaller event, the Japan Open Tennis Championships, before winning her second in her final tournament of the season, the Bell Challenge in Quebec City. To cap off her first full season as a professional, she was awarded the WTA Newcomer of the Year honor.

2004: Wimbledon glory and rise to fame

During the spring clay-court season, Sharapova entered the top 20 on the WTA world rankings as a result of reaching the third round of the Qatar Telecom German Open and the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, both of which were Tier I events. At the latter event, she defeated a player ranked in the top 10 for the first time with a straight-sets win over world No. 10 and 2004 French Open finalist Elena Dementieva. Later that clay-court season, she went on to make the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time at the French Open, losing there to Paola Suarez

Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2004