Maria Sharapova
July 25th, 2008
Sharapova has won three Grand Slam singles titles. In 2004, at the age of 17, she won Wimbledon, defeating Serena Williams in the final. She has since won the 2006 US Open, defeating Justine Henin in the final, and the 2008 Australian Open, defeating Ana Ivanovic in the final.
As of July 2008, she is the world's highest-paid female athlete. She is currently coached by her father, Yuri Sharapov, and former player Michael Joyce.
Sharapova is considered to be a power baseliner, with excellent power, depth, and angles on her groundstrokes. Instead of using a traditional volley or overhead smash, she often prefers to hit a powerful "swinging" volley when approaching the net or attacking lobs. Sharapova has good speed around the court, especially considering her height. At the beginning of the 2008 season, many observers noted that Sharapova had improved her movement and footwork and added a drop shot and sliced backhand to her repertoire of shots.
Sharapova's preferred surfaces are the fast-playing hard and grass because her game is not as well-suited to the slower-playing clay. She lacks confidence in her ability to move and slide on this surface and once described herself as like a "cow on ice" whenever she plays on clay. Her limitations on this surface are reflected in her career results, as she did not win a Women's Tennis Association tour title on clay until April 2008 (despite having won 18 titles on other surfaces) and because the French Open is the only Grand Slam singles title she has not yet won.
Sharapova's first and second serve are her main weapons and are very powerful. She is often able to produce an ace or a service winner or results in a weak reply from her opponent, which allows her to take control of the rally immediately. Sharapova is also known for her extremely well placed serves, often capable of acing on her second service. A serious shoulder injury in early 2007, however, reduced the effectiveness of her serve for several months, as she routinely produced eight to ten double faults in many of her matches during this period. She later changed her service motion to a more compacted backswing (as opposed to her traditional elongated backswing) in an attempt to put less stress on her shoulder, but she nevertheless periodically experienced problems with her serve throughout the rest of the year, most notably producing 12 double faults in her third-round loss at the US Open. Her serve appeared to be more effective at the 2008 Australian Open, as she produced just 17 double faults in seven matches while winning the tournament. Her serving problems resurfaced, however, during the spring of 2008, as she produced 43 double faults in just four matches at the French Open and eight double faults during her second round loss at Wimbledon. Observers, including Tracy Austin, believe that when Sharapova experiences problems with her serve, she often loses confidence in the rest of her game, and as a result, produces more unforced errors and generally plays more tentatively.
Sharapova is known for on-court "grunting," reaching 101 decibels (near the volume of a police siren) during a match at Wimbledon in 2005.
Sharapova was born in 1987 to Yuri and Yelena, ethnic Russians, in the town of Nyagan in Siberia, Russia. Previously her parents had lived in Gomel, Belarus, but were compelled to move after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.
When Maria was two, the family moved to Sochi. There, Yuri befriended Aleksandre Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny would go on to become a Grand Slam champion. Aleksandre gave Maria her first tennis racket at the age of four and subsequently, Maria and her father began regular practices in the local park. At the age of six, Maria attended a tennis clinic in Moscow run by Martina Navratilova, who noted Maria was talented but required professional training, recommending the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida. Yuri and Maria, neither of whom could speak English, moved to Florida in 1994. Because of visa restrictions, Yelena could not originally move with them, though she eventually joined them two years later. Yuri took a variety of jobs in order to fund Maria's lessons, including washing plates, and, until the age of 12, Maria was transported to the academy each day on the handlebars of Yuri's bicycle as they could not afford any other method of transport. Maria developed rapidly at the academy and began playing junior tournaments.
Sharapova turned professional in 2001, although she played a total of just two WTA tournaments in 2001 and 2002 plus six challenger events. She became the youngest girl to reach the final at the junior Australian Open in 2002, and repeated this feat at Wimbledon later in the same year. She also won three titles on the ITF Circuit and played her first matches on the main WTA Tour, including winning a match at the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California.
Sharapova was the fifth-seeded player at the Australian Open. She defeated former World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the second round and World No. 1 Justine Henin in the quarterfinals 6–4, 6–0, ending the latter's 32-match winning streak. Sharapova then reached her second consecutive Australian Open final when she defeated an injured Jelena Jankovic in the semifinals. Dropping only 10 service points during the final, Sharapova defeated Ana Ivanovic and won this tournament without losing a set.
After the Australian Open, Sharapova extended her winning streak to 18 matches before finally losing. She participated for the first time in Fed Cup and won the Tier I Qatar Total Open in Doha. In the semifinals of the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Sharapova lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova, which was her first loss of the year. Sharapova then withdrew from the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, citing a shoulder injury.
She was the top-seeded player at the Tier II Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida. Her 3 hour, 26 minute third round victory was her longest ever match. The next day, she needed an additional 2 hours, 36 minutes to win her quarterfinal match. Sharapova then received a walkover to the final after Davenport withdrew from the tournament. In her first career clay court final, Sharapova defeated Dominika Cibulkova.
The following week at the Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, Sharapova lost to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals 7–5, 4–6, 6–1. Sharapova had a set point at 5-4 in the first set and claimed the second set but then won only nine points in the final set. This was Sharapova's fourth consecutive loss to Williams.
Sharapova was the second-seeded player at the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia, formerly known as the Italian Open, in Rome. She defeated Patty Schnyder in the quarterfinals but then did not play her semifinal against Jankovic because of a calf injury. Sharapova nevertheless regained the World No. 1 ranking because of Henin's sudden retirement from professional tennis and request to the Women's Tennis Association that her own ranking be removed immediately.
Sharapova was the top-seeded player at the French Open and defeated compatriot Evgeniya Rodina in the first round 6–1, 3–6, 8–6 after being two points from becoming the first female top seeded player in the open era to lose in the first round of this tournament. Sharapova ultimately lost to 13th-seeded and eventual runner-up Dinara Safina in a 2 hour, 52 minute fourth round match 6–7(6), 7–6(5), 6–2. Sharapova saved two set points in the first set tiebreaker before winning the last four points to take the set and then had a match point at 5–3 in the second set and led 5–2 in the second set tiebreaker before losing the last five points of the set. Safina won the last four games and ten of the last twelve points of the match. Sharapova lost the match despite hitting 65 winners and only 39 unforced errors. She relinquished the World No. 1 ranking as a result of this loss.
Sharapova withdrew from the grass court DFS Classic in Birmingham, United Kingdom because of a shoulder injury sustained during the French Open. At Wimbledon, Sharapova was seeded third but lost in the second round to compatriot and World No. 159 Alla Kudryavtseva 6–2, 6–4. This was her earliest loss ever at Wimbledon.
Sharapova now intends to play the Tier I Rogers Cup in Montreal, the singles event at the Olympics in Beijing, and the US Open. Sharapova's representation of Russia in the Fed Cup has been controversial. At the end of 2004, compatriot Anastasia Myskina stated she would stop playing for Russia if Sharapova joined. Nevertheless, at the end of 2005, Sharapova stated she was now keen to make her Fed Cup debut and was set to play against Belgium in April 2006, but withdrew.
Sharapova later withdrew from ties against Spain in April 2007 and against the United States in July 2007 because of injuries. The latter withdrawal led to Russia's captain saying she would be "ineligible for selection" for the Fed Cup final in September. However, Sharapova attended the final, cheering from the sidelines and acting as a "hitting partner" in practices, resulting in some of her Russian teammates implying that she was attending only to enable her to play at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (rules state that players must have "shown commitment" to Fed Cup in order to play). Svetlana Kuznetsova said, "She said she wanted to be our practise partner but if you can't play how then can you practise?"
Sharapova finally made her Fed Cup debut in February 2008, in Russia's quarterfinal tie against Israel. Sharapova won both her singles rubbers, against Tzipora Obziler and Shahar Peer, helping Russia to a 4-1 victory.
