Maria Sharapova Biography: Age, Baby, Boyfriends, Husband, Instagram, Net Worth » Gist Flare

Maria Sharapova began her professional tennis career at the age of 14, and despite suffering from multiple injuries throughout her career, she is one of the few female tennis players to earn numerous awards and maintain her position in the sport. Because of her popularity and good looks, she has endorsed a variety of brands aside from sports.

Born in Russia, Maria Sharapova moved to the United States at an early age and began training at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. After turning professional as a teen, she burst into the spotlight by winning the 2004 Wimbledon women’s singles title. Sharapova became the 10th woman to earn a career Grand Slam with her French Open win in 2012.

Born Maria Yuryevna Sharapova in Nyagan, Siberia, Russia, on April 19, 1987 to Yuri Sharapov and Yelena. Her parents are from Gomel, Byelorussian SSR. They left their homeland shortly before Maria was born, fearful of the regional consequences of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Sharapova attended a tennis clinic in Moscow in 1993, at the age of six, run by Czech-born American tennis star Martina Navratilova, who recommended professional training with Nick Bollettieri for Maria at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, who had previously trained players such as Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, and Anna Kournikova.

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Yuri Sharapov borrowed money to enable him and his daughter, neither of whom spoke English, to travel to the United States, which they did in 1994.

Maria Sharapova was not admitted to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy right away because she was too young. She began her tennis training at the Rick Macci Tennis Academy before signing a contract with the International Management Group (IMG), a global sports and talent management organization based in New York.

Sharapova rose to prominence in tennis when, at the age of 13, she won the Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships in the girls’ 16 division. She was then given a special honor, the Rising Star Award, which is only given to players who show exceptional promise.

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Sharapova won her first WTA title at the 2003 AIG Japan Open and advanced to the fourth round of Wimbledon on her first attempt that year. The following year, she won the Wimbledon singles title, becoming Russia’s first female Wimbledon champion. She added a WTA Championships title to her resume at the end of 2004.

Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach the top of the tennis rankings in 2005, and she won her second Grand Slam title the following year at the U.S. Open.

The tennis star was hampered by shoulder issues for much of 2007 and 2008, but she still managed to win her third Grand Slam, dominating at the 2008 Australian Open. She eventually had shoulder surgery that October, and the resulting layoff kept her out of the Top 100 until her return to singles play in May 2009.

Sharapova struggled to regain her consistency, but by the end of 2009, she was back in the Top 20 and ranked No. 4 in the world. Sharapova defeated Sara Errani in the French Open final in June 2012. She became the 10th woman in history to complete a career Grand Slam (winning all four major tournaments – Australian Open (2008), French Open(2012, 2014) Wimbledon (2004), US Open(2006)), and she reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking.

Sharapova won a silver medal in women’s singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics, her Olympic debut, losing the gold medal to American tennis star Serena Williams. In subsequent majors, the Russian played well, finishing runner-up at the 2013 French Open. However, shoulder issues caused her to withdraw from the rest of the season not long after a disappointing second-round loss at Wimbledon.

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Sharapova regained her form in 2014, winning her second French Open and fifth Grand Slam title overall by defeating Simona Halep. In 2015, she reached the Australian Open final and the US Open semifinals before finishing the year ranked fourth.

Maria Sharapova and her man, Alexander Gilkes

Sharapova began dating Slovenian basketball player Sasha Vujacic in 2009, and the couple married the following year. However, during a post-match press conference at the 2012 US Open, Sharapova announced that the engagement had been called off and that her relationship with Vujacic had ended.

 From 2013 to 2015, she dated Bulgarian tennis pro Grigor Dimitrov. Since 2018, she has been linked to Paddle8 co-founder Alexander Gilkes. In December 2020, Sharapova and Gilkes revealed they are engaged. In April 2022, Sharapova announced that they are expecting their first child.

In March 2016, Sharapova was sanction by Tennis anti-drug agency for taking a banned substance. According to Maria, she had been taking this substance for over 10 years due to health issues and at the time, the drug was not an illegal substance to the Tennis commission. The drug was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) prohibited list on January 1, 2016 of which she didn’t know.

Due to the sanction, she was banned from competing for 2 years but it was later reduced to 15 months following an appeal.

Instagram: @mariasharapova

Twitter: @MariaSharapova