Player - Maria Sharapova Tennis Player Biography

Birth Name: Maria Yuryevna Sharapova

Name : Maria Sharapova

Date of Birth : April 19, 1987

Birthplace : Nyagan, Russia (Siberian Region)

Residence : Bradenton, Florida, USA

Nationality : Russian

Height : 6'2

Weight : 130 lbs. (59 kg)

Plays : Right-handed

Clothing : Nike

Racquet : Prince

Father : Youri Sharapov

Mother : Yelena Sharapova

Relation : Sasha Vujacic (LA Lakers player, engaged, split Sep-2012), Grigor Dimitrov (tennis player)

Maria Sharapova Biography

Despite her young age, Maria Sharapova has reached such a superb accomplishment in her profession as a tennis player. Throughout her career, she has collected a series of titles: one in Grand Slam, WTA Championships, Tier I Event, and seven in WTA Tour Tournaments. Furthermore, she also has received 4 WTA Awards that were WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2003, WTA Player of the Year, Most Improved Player of the Year, and Player Service which were all honored in 2004. Compared to Monica Seles and Anna Kournikova, she is indeed the mixture of incredible skills and unusual beauty that brought a kind of phenomenon in sports world, especially tennis. With her excellent technique and talent, she undoubtedly has the potentiality to become the best tennis player in the world.

Born with the name of Maria Yuryevna Sharapova, she is the only child of Youri Sharapov and Yelena Sharapova. Her parents previously had lived in Gomel, Belarus, but left the city in 1986 to avoid the repercussion of Chernobyl nuclear incident. The couple then moved to a town in western Siberia called Nyagan where Yelena delivered their daughter on April 19, 1987. Feeling that it was still close to the ...

location of disaster, the family took along little Maria to seek a safer place in 1989. They later settled in Sochi which has been known as a resort city as well as the home of famous Russian tennis player, Yevgeny Kafelnikov. It was not until she turned to four that she was introduced to tennis through an old racquet given by Kafelnikov's father who happened to be Youri's friend. As her enthusiasm for tennis flourished, she studiously practiced this challenging sport by hitting the ball against the side of her house.

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, Daniela Hantuchova 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.

Maria Sharapova Says good-bye to mother

Born on April 19, 1987, Sharapova is the daughter of Yuri and Yelena Sharapova. Her father worked in the construction industry, and both parents were avid athletes. They had met in Gomel, a city in the Ukraine that was near the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in April 1986, just a year before Sharapova was born. When her mother became pregnant, she and Yuri decided to move east to escape the potentially damaging radioactive effects of the accident. They settled in Nyagan, Siberia, where Sharapova was born. Yuri found work in the Siberian oilfields, but the climate was too cold for them. They saved their money for four years and finally were able to move to Sochi, a pleasant resort town on the Black Sea in the south of Russia.

Sharapova's parents liked to play tennis, and they gave her a racket as a toddler and began teaching her how to hit the ball. Because they could not afford a genuine child-size racket, they cut off the handle of an adult one for her to master instead. She proved a quick learner, and when she was six years old they traveled to Moscow for a youth tennis clinic. One of the celebrity athletes at the event was Czech-born Martina Navratilova (1956–), a nine-time women's singles winner at Wimbledon. Navratilova was impressed by Sharapova's skills and suggested to the parents that they contact the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. This was a tennis-focused boarding school that had trained several future champions, including Andre Agassi (1970–), Pete Sampras (1971–), and Monica Seles (1973–).

"Tennis obviously is going to make my money at this point, and that's what I've been practicing for. But it's not my life."

The Sharapovas decided to go to Florida and try to get Maria enrolled there. But only Yuri could get a visa (a document permitting a foreign citizen to legally enter the country) to travel to the United States, and so Yelena stayed behind in Sochi and waited for her visa application to be approved. They also needed money for the trip and had to borrow several hundred dollars from Yuri and Yelena's parents. This was an enormous sum for her parents, partly because Russia was in a state of financial chaos at the time, and average working families like hers struggled to obtain the basic necessities of life in the new, non-Communist era in which the state did not generously provide jobs, housing, and healthcare for all citizens. "My parents weren't stupid," Sharapova told Peter Kafka in Forbes. "The conditions in Russia weren't the best for tennis."

Maria Sharapova Career Titles 

Maria Sharapova In Singles

2008: Australian Open
2008: Qatar Total Open
2008: Bausch & Lomb Championships
2007: Acura Classic
2006: Pacific Life Open
2006: Acura Classic
2006: US Open
2006: Zurich Open
2005: Toray Pan Pacific Open
2005: Qatar Total Open
2005: DFS Classic
2004: DFS Classic
2004: Wimbledon
2004: Hansol Korea Open
2004: AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships
2004: WTA Tour Championships
2003: Japan Open
2003: Bell Challenge

Maria Sharapova In Doubles

2004: DFS Classic
2003: Japan Open
2003: Seat Open

Maria Sharapova Awards


ESPY Awards

2008
Won ESPY Award
category Best Female Tennis Player

2007
Won ESPY Award
category Best Female International Athlete

2007
Won ESPY Award
category Best Female Tennis Player

2005
Won ESPY Award
category Best Female Tennis Player

2005
Got nomination for ESPY Award
category Best Female Athlete

2005
Got nomination for ESPY Award
category Best Breakthrough Athlete

Laureus World Sports Awards

2007
Got nomination for Laureus World Sports Award
category Sportswoman of the Year

2005
Got nomination for Laureus World Sports Award
category Sportswoman of the Year

2004
Got nomination for Laureus World Sports Award
category Newcomer of the Year

Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Awards

2004
Won Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Award
category Player of the Year

2004
Won Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Award
category Most Improved Player

2003
Won Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Award
category Most Impressive Newcomer

Teen Choice Awards

2012
Got nomination for Teen Choice Awards
category Choice Female Athlete

2011
Got nomination for Teen Choice Award
category Choice Athlete: Female

2008
Got nomination for Teen Choice Award
category Choice Female Athlete

2007
Won Teen Choice Award
category Choice Female Athlete

2006
Won Teen Choice Award
category Choice Sport - Female Athlete