Sharapova's father, Yuri Sharapov, brought Maria to the United States to attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida when she was 7 years old. Her mother, Yelena, who could not come with them because of visa restrictions, followed a few years later. Sharapova has lived in the United States since then but retains her Russian citizenship.
Until recently, Sharapova lived most of the year near the IMG training facility in Bradenton with her pomeranian, Dolce, who is featured in one of her advertisements for Canon PowerShot. According to the announcers at her first round match at the 2007 U.S. Open, she has moved to Southern California.
Sharapova is good friends with fellow Russian tennis player Maria Kirilenko, and has called actress Camilla Belle her best friend.
In 2004, a year after reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon as a wild card, Sharapova became the third-youngest Wimbledon women's champion (after Lottie Dod and Martina Hingis) and second-youngest in the open era by defeating Ai Sugiyama (5-7, 7-5, 6-1) in a quarterfinal, Lindsay Davenport (2-6, 7-6, 6-1) in a semifinal, and two-time defending champion Serena Williams (6-1, 6-4) in the final. She also became the first Russian to win that tournament. At the U.S. Open a few months later, she lost to French player and two-time Grand Slam champion Mary Pierce. During her match against Mary Pierce in the 2004 U.S. Open, Sharapova and several other Russian women tennis players wore a black ribbon in observance of the tragedy after the Beslan school hostage crisis which took place only a few days before.[2] Sharapova ended 2004 with a victory at the season-ending WTA Championships, defeating an injured Serena Williams (4-6, 6-2, 6-4) after coming back from 0-4 in the final set. After losing to Sharapova in a semifinal of this event, Anastasia Myskina said: "He [Sharapova's father] was just yelling and screaming instructions to her and I thought he just might jump right on the court at one point in the match."
From June 2004 until her Wimbledon semifinal appearance in 2005, Sharapova won 22 straight matches on grass, including consecutive Birmingham titles and the Wimbledon title. She reached the semifinals of the 2005 Australian Open, where she held three match points against Serena Williams before losing 2-6, 7-5, 8-6. Off court, she was paid for numerous commercial endorsements. In February, she won her first Tier 1 event in Tokyo
Defending her Wimbledon title in 2005, Sharapova reached the semifinals without losing a set but then was well beaten by a rejuvenated Venus Williams (7-6, 6-1). Sharapova's streak on grass was ended, as was her quest to dethrone top-ranked Lindsay Davenport.
However, Davenport injured her back in the Wimbledon final, preventing her from defending the ranking points she obtained during the U.S. hard-court season of 2004. Sharapova had fewer points to defend and therefore rose to the No. 1 ranking on August 22, 2005. Her reign lasted only one week, however, as Davenport re-ascended to the top ranking after winning the title in New Haven. Sharapova rose to the No. 1 ranking again on September 12, 2005, despite losing in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Sharapova kept the No. 1 ranking for six weeks before relinquishing it again to Davenport following the 2005 Zurich Open.
Sharapova's loss in a semifinal of the 2005 U.S. Open against Kim Clijsters marked the fourth time that year she had lost at a Grand Slam tournament to the eventual champion: Australian Open-SF-Serena Williams, French Open-QF-Justine Henin-Hardenne, Wimbledon-SF-Venus Williams, U.S. Open-SF-Clijsters.
At the 2006 Australian Open, Sharapova lost in the semifinals to Justine Henin-Hardenne 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, the only match of the year that she lost after winning the first set.
Sharapova claimed her first title of 2006 and eleventh of her career at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, a Tier 1 event at which she was the third seed. Sharapova and No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva became the first Russians to reach the event's final, with Sharapova triumphing 6-1, 6-2. Soon after, Sharapova lost in the final of the Nasdaq-100 Open to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-3. Had Sharapova won the match, she would've became only the third player (after Steffi Graf and Kim Clijsters) in history to win the Indian Wells-Miami double.
Sharapova participated at the 2006 French Open without having played any of the clay-court tune-ups. After saving three match points in the first round against Mashona Washington, Sharapova was eliminated in the fourth round by Dinara Safina 7-5, 2-6, 7-5, after Sharapova led 5-1 in the third set. Sharapova lost 18 of the match's last 21 points.
Sharapova welcomed the onset of the grass season but failed to add a third successive Birmingham title to her collection, losing in the semifinals to American Jamea Jackson.
For the second consecutive year, Sharapova was defeated in the semifinals of Wimbledon, losing to eventual winner Amélie Mauresmo 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
Sharapova claimed her second title of 2006 as the second seed at the Acura Classic in San Diego, defeating top-seeded Kim Clijsters 7-5, 7-5. This was Sharapova's first victory over Clijsters in five meetings. Many believe that this win was the turnaround for this season.
Sharapova played at Los Angeles, but lost to Elena Dementieva in the semifinals. It was her only summer hardcourt lost that year.
Sharapova entered the 2006 U.S. Open seeded third after Clijsters dropped out of the tournament with a wrist injury. Favoured to reach the final, she defeated Mauresmo, the top-ranked player in the world, in a semifinal 6-0, 4-6, 6-0. Sharapova then prevailed over Henin-Hardenne in the final 6-4, 6-4 to win her second Grand Slam title. She joined the list of players who had beaten the Top 2 players in the world to win a Grand Slam, as well as the list of players who had beaten the Top 2 players in a row in the same tournament.
Sharapova won the Zurich Open, defeating Daniela Hantuchová 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in the final. Sharapova then won the Generali Ladies Linz, defeating fellow Russian and defending champion Nadia Petrova 7-5, 6-2, to take her fifth title of 2006 and the 15th title of her career.
Until her loss in the semifinals of the WTA Tour Championships, Sharapova had won 19 consecutive matches. She finished the year with a 59-9 record and won more Tier I titles than any other player.
In 2007, Sharapova reached the final of the Watson Water Champions Challenge, an exhibition tournament and warm-up for the 2007 Australian Open, where she was defeated by Kim Clijsters 6-3, 7-6(8).
At the Australian Open, the top-seeded Sharapova defeated the 62nd-ranked Camille Pin in the first round 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 on her fourth match point. The match was played in air temperatures that exceeded 40 °C (104 °F) and on-court temperatures that exceeded 50 °C (122 °F). In the fourth round, Sharapova defeated compatriot Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-4. In the quarterfinals, Sharapova overcame the twelfth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze 7-6(5), 7-5. She then defeated fourth-seeded Clijsters 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals to reach her first Australian Open final and gain the opportunity to win the only Grand Slam singles title that a Russian woman had not yet won. However, Serena Williams, ranked No. 81 in the world, beat Sharapova easily 6-1, 6-2. Williams was the third-lowest-ranked player in the open era to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Her next tournament was the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, where she was the defending champion and top seed. However, she lost to Zvonareva in the fourth round 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 after leading 5-4 in the second set.
At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Sharapova again lost easily to Serena Williams, this time in the fourth round 6-1, 6-1. In her previous rounds, she had defeated Yung-Jan Chan of Taipei and Venus Williams.
Sharapova was scheduled to play in the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, but a shoulder injury kept her off the tour and prevented her from playing in the Fed Cup tie against Spain and the Qatar Telecom German Open. She was scheduled to make her return to the tour at the Telecom Italia Masters Roma in Rome, but she had to pull out again because, as she said on her official website, she was not ready to play there even though her body was slowly getting better. She finally made her return at the Istanbul Cup, her first clay court tournament of the year, where she lost to Frenchwoman Aravane Rezaï in the semifinals 6-2, 6-4.
Sharapova then reached semifinals of the French Open for the first time in her career. She defeated Patty Schnyder in the fourth round after being down match point, then beat fellow Russian Anna Chakvetadze in the quarterfinals. In her semifinal match she fell to Ana Ivanović with a lopsided score of 6-2, 6-1.
At the DFS Classic in Birmingham, United Kingdom, Sharapova lost in the final to second seeded Jelena Janković 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 having led 3-0 in the final set.
Sharapova had an indifferent Wimbledon, falling victim to eventual champion Venus Williams, in the fourth round. Sharapova was subdued by Williams' dominant serve and crashed out in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. This was the first time she had lost in a Grand Slam fourth round since the 2006 French Open and the second time she has lost at the fourth round stage in Wimbledon, the first being at the 2003 Wimbledon Championships as a qualifier.
Sharapova was scheduled to play the Fed Cup for Russia in their semifinal tie against the USA during the weekend 14-15 July. However, amid considerable controversy, she withdrew claiming that her shoulder injury that has been bothering her for most of the year is causing problems again. On July 18, three days after Russia booked a place in the final with Italy, team captain Shamil Tarpishchev announced that Sharapova would be ineligible from selection for this year's tournament.
Sharapova supported Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics bid, and the city was eventually chosen to hold the games, becoming the first Russian (as Russian Federation) city on doing so.
On July 25th, Sharapova played World Team Tennis, where she played women´s and mixed doubles. During her mixed doubles match with Rick Leach, she hit a serve that reached 126 mph (201.6 km/h), followed by another of 116 mph (185.6 km/h).
Sharapova then played her first summer hardcourt tournament, the Acura Classic in San Diego, California, where she was the defending champion. This was the final ever edition of the tournament, as it has now been discontinued. Heading into the tournament Sharapova was questioned for her seesaw season, but thus far has shown no signs of rust. Sharapova had also been questioned over her uncharactersitic shaky serves and double faults this season, but she showed no signs of that as well as she hit 9 aces in her second round match, including one that reached 113 mph (181.1 km/h). Later in the tournament, she hit one that reached 184 km/h. The problem had been aggravated by a shoulder injury. Sharapova came through to the final relatively unscathed; she had not lost more than three games in a set, and has not lost more than 5 games in a match. In the final, she faced #11 seed Patty Schnyder and ended up winning 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, claiming her first title of the year and the 16th title of her career. (Until the loss of the second set, Sharapova had won 19 consecutive sets there).
The win propelled Sharapova to first place in the U.S. Open Series standings. The winner gets a bonus 1 million dollars with however much they make at the U.S. Open. Last year, Sharapova finished 2nd and got a bonus .5 million along with her 1.2 million dollar check for her title win. She received 1.7 million in a single night, the second highest payday in women's tennis history. The record is held by Kim Clijsters, who had received 2.2 million at the 2005 Open after she won the title as well as the series.
Her next tournament was the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles, California. As the top seed, she had a first round bye. She faced Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the second round. Sharapova was leading 7-6(5), 3-1 when her opponent retired injured. She then survived a marathon against Netherland´s unseeded Michaëlla Krajicek. Sharapova was down 2-4 in the second and was able to take the set to a tie-break, but she lost it 7-3. She then was twice a break down in the third, but eventually she prevailed 7-6(4),6-7(3),6-4 in 2 hours and 47 minutes. In the quarters she faced the number 9 seed and defending champion Elena Dementieva, who beat Sharapova in the semis last year. Sharapova then moved into the semis after winning in straight sets 6-3 6-4 in 1 hour and 30 minutes after breaking Dementieva 5 times with Dementieva breaking her once in each set. She was scheduled to face another fellow Russian Nadia Petrova, but she retired from the match with a shin injury. Sharapova had already pulled out of the Rogers Cup and faced a race against time to be fit for the U.S. Open.
Despite her withdrawal from the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Sharapova remained No.2 heading into the US Open. She has been in the Top 2 since November of 2006. Sharapova has won the US Open series. Following her win at San Diego and semis placing at Los Angeles, Sharapova had gained 122 points and even with one tournament left at New Haven, no one was able to catch her. This was Sharapova's first US Open series title.
All the 5 tournaments before the US Open are counted in the standings (Stanford, San Diego, Los Angeles, Toronto & New Haven) and Sharapova is the 3rd player to capture this title and if she wins the US Open, she could win an extra $1 million on top of the US Open prize money, which is rewarding an astounding 1.4 million to the winner. If Sharapova wins the US Open, she could potentially walk off with 2.4 million a night - beating the record held by Kim Clijsters in 2005, where she won 2.2 million in a night (She had won the Series with a bonus 1 million as well as the Open, which at that time rewarded only 1.2 million for a total of 2.2 million).
The US open draw was released on August 22nd; with Sharapova seeded #2. The talk of the Open was also Sharapova's night dress, a red dress with more than 600 Swarvoski crystals embedded at the neckline. Sharapova said the dress was New York inspired, after the "Big Apple" (thus the color red coming in) and that the glitter from the crystals represented the skyline of New York at night with all the lights. Like last year's black night dress, this year's dress received raves from commentators, reporters, and fans alike.
Sharapova was favored to reach the final due to all of the strongest opponents all being in the top half of the draw, and she breezed through her first two rounds against Roberta Vinci and Casey Dellacqua, dropping a total of only two games for both matches. However, in the third round, the biggest shock thus far in the tournament came to pass. After being seemingly invincible in the first two rounds, Sharapova dropped the first set to 18 year old Pole Agnieszka Radwańska. She took the second set 6-1, as well as a 2-0 lead in the third. Radwańska ran off six straight games to claim the upset 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. It was Sharapova's earliest exit at a Slam since she lost in the same round at the U.S. Open three years ago to Mary Pierce (also in three sets). She had 12 double faults and a total of 49 unforced errors for the match. This was the first time since 1981 that the 2nd seed had lost before the fourth round.
When the September 10th rankings were released, Sharapova had dropped two spots to #4. It's the first time she's been out of the Top 2 since November of 2006. Also, Svetlana Kuznetsova, who is now at a career-high #2, replaced Sharapova as the top-ranked Russian player. It was the first time Sharapova did not have this honor since the end of 2004 (where she was behind Anastasia Myskina), with the exception of a brief period in May 2006 where Nadia Petrova was the highest-ranked Russian player. Sharapova is currently at #6 in the Race Rankings, so she is not guaranteed yet to be one of the Top 8. Justine Henin, Jelena Janković, and Svetlana Kuznetsova are the first three to qualify for Madrid. Sharapova is behind Ana Ivanović and Anna Chakvetadze, with the likes of Serena Williams and Venus Williams close behind.
--Wikipedia
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