Sharapova the Goofball?

Well, it seems that Sharapova has described herself as typical teenager, she said,“I’m a goofball. I’m the dork of the group.”

“At the end of the day, no matter how much money I’m making, what I’ve done in my career, no matter what cool cars or house I have, I’m still Maria, I’m still a normal girl who still enjoys life,” she said. Yet Sharapova admitted that she found parts of her life “unreal”. Every day during the New York tournament, on her journey from her Manhattan hotel to Flushing Meadows in Queens, she had looked out of the window of the courtesy car and seen herself on the billboards at the side of the road. “I say, ‘Oh my God, look, that’s me.’ It’s crazy. It really is crazy. And it’s also so unreal every time I go out of my house on Manhattan Beach in California that I own it, that it’s mine. Every time that I’m out driving my car, a Land Rover, I can’t believe it’s mine,” she said.

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About Sharapova

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (Mar-I-ya YUR-yev-na Sha-RA-pahva ); Russian: Мари́я Ю́рьевна Шара́пова; born April 19, 1987) is a former world number one professional tennis player and the highest paid female athlete. Her parents are originally from Gomel, Belarus, but moved to Siberia, Russia in 1986, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Sharapova was born in Nyagan, Russia, the following year. She now lives in the United States, but retains Russian citizenship.

Early life

At the age of three, Sharapova moved with her family to the Black Sea resort town of Sochi. She started playing tennis at the age of four, using a racquet given to her by the father of tennis star Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a native of Sochi. At the age of six, while in a tennis clinic in Moscow, Sharapova was spotted by Martina Navratilova, who urged her parents to get her serious coaching in the United States.

Barely able to make ends meet, Sharapova’s parents took a risk. Sharapova and her father traveled to Florida to enroll at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. A visa problem meant a two-year separation between Sharapova and her father in America, and her mother in Russia.

To pay for her school fees, her father worked at several jobs at one time. A full scholarship granted by International Management Group made life more comfortable for the father and daughter.

Career

In 2004, after a spectacular run, which included three-set wins over Ai Sugiyama (5-7, 7-5, 6-1) and Lindsay Davenport (2-6, 7-6, 6-1), Sharapova became the third youngest Wimbledon women’s champion (after Lottie Dod and Martina Hingis) and second youngest in the Open Era by defeating defending two-time champion Serena Williams in straight sets (6-1, 6-4). She also became the first Russian ever to win that tournament. Sharapova followed it up with a victory at the season-ending WTA Championships, defeating Serena Williams again by a score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. In the final set, she came back from a defecit of 4-0.

From June 2004 until her Wimbledon semi-final appearance in 2005, Sharapova had a 22-match winning streak on grass, including back-to-back Birmingham titles and the Wimbledon crown. Sharapova’s huge success continued after winning Wimbledon, both on the court and off with numerous endorsements following.

Defending her Wimbledon title in 2005 looked to be a simple enough task at first, with Sharapova sailing through to the semi-finals without losing a set. However, she dropped her first set of the tournament against a rejuvenated Venus Williams and lost the match 6-7 1-6. Sharapova’s streak on grass was ended, as was her quest for the No. 1 ranking, with Lindsay Davenport, who lost a historic match to Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final, retaining that position.

However, a back injury that Davenport sustained in the Wimbledon final meant that she could not defend the ranking points she obtained during the US hard court season of 2004. Sharapova was also suffering from an injury and did not complete a tournament during the season, but she had fewer points to defend and therefore rose to the No. 1 ranking on August 22, 2005. Her reign lasted only a week when Davenport re-ascended after winning the New Haven title. Sharapova rose to the No. 1 ranking again on September 12, 2005 despite losing in the semi-finals of the US Open. Sharapova would hold on to the No. 1 ranking for a further six weeks before relinquishing it again to Davenport following the 2005 Zurich Open.

Her loss in the semifinal of the 2005 US Open against Kim Clijsters marked the fourth time that season that she lost at a Grand Slam tournament against the eventual champion: Australian Open-SF-Serena Williams, French Open-QF-Justine Henin-Hardenne, Wimbledon-SF-Venus Williams, US Open-SF-Kim Clijsters. That record was broken in January 2006, when Sharapova lost in the Australian Open semi-final to Justine Henin-Hardenne. Henin-Hardenne went on to lose in the final of the Australian Open to Amélie Mauresmo.

On March 18, 2006, Sharapova, as No. 3 seed, claimed her first title of the year at the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells (a Tier 1 event), defeating No.4 seed Elena Dementieva in the final, 6-1 6-2. This was the 11th title of her career. Sharapova was the first Russian to reach the final of the Pacific Life Open. As Dementieva reached the final later, surprisingly defeating Justine Henin-Hardenne, this was the first-ever all-Russian final at the event. Soon after, Sharapova reached the final of the Nasdaq-100 losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6, 3-6. She then took 2 months off because of an ankle injury, resulting in her pulling out of events in Rome and Istanbul.

Sharapova decided to participate at the 2006 French Open despite having not played any 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, blowing a lead of 5-1 in the third set, and losing 18 of the last 21 points to lose 5-7, 6-2, 5-7. She welcomed the onset of the grass season, but failed to add a third successive Birmingham title to her collection, losing in the semi-finals to the inexperienced American player Jamea Jackson.

For the second consecutive year, Sharapova was defeated in the semi-finals of The Championships, Wimbledon, losing to eventual winner Amélie Mauresmo 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Sharapova currently has a 1-5 record in Grand Slam semi-finals. Sharapova is currently ranked No. 4 in the world.

Sharapova claimed her second title of 2006 (12th career title) as the second seed at the Acura Classic in San Diego, defeating top seed Kim Clijsters, 7-5 7-5 (Her first victory over Clijsters in five meetings).

Education

Sharapova studies via correspondence on the internet with the Keystone High School home schooling program and has a liking for sociology. As of 2004, she is in her second year of high school at 17 years of age. (TENNIS Magazine, September issue)

Personal Life

As of August 2006, it has been widely reported that Sharapova is dating fellow tennis pro, Andy Roddick. The two were recently photographed acting amorously towards each other at a hotel pool in Manhattan Beach, California. In July 2006 , Maria and her agents sued a Florida based production company Byzantium Productions Inc over illegally using her name and image to promote their documentaries. A federal judge ruled in Byzantium’s favour on August 3 , 2006.

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