She was ranked as the world No. She is one of ten women to achieve the career Grand Slam. Sharapova is considered one of the best players of her generation. A teen phenom, Sharapova broke through to the top of the sport by winning the Wimbledon Championships as a year-old, upsetting two-time defending champion Serena Williams. She became the world No. After a career-long struggle with success on clay courts , Sharapova claimed the French Open to complete the career Grand Slam, briefly returning to the No.
She won a second French Open title in for her fifth major championship. Sharapova retired from the sport in Sharapova has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She has appeared in many advertisements, including those for Nike, Prince, and Canon, and has been the face of several fashion houses , most notably Cole Haan. Concerned about the regional effects of the Chernobyl nuclear accident , they left their hometown shortly before Maria was born.
In , when Sharapova was three, the family moved to Sochi , Russia. Her father, Yuri, befriended Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny would go on to win two Grand Slam singles titles and become Russia's first world No.
Aleksandr gave Sharapova her first tennis racquet in when she was four, whereupon she began practicing regularly with her father at a local park. Initially, she trained with Rick Macci. Sharapova first hit tennis fame in November , when she won the Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships in the girls' 16 division at the age of just Due to restrictions on how many professional events she could play, Sharapova went to hone her game in junior tournaments, where she reached the finals of the girls' singles events at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in She was the youngest girl ever to reach the final of the Australian Open junior championship at 14 years and 9 months.
Sharapova reached No. In all, she won three junior singles tournaments and was runner-up at five, including two junior Grand Slam events. Her winβloss record in junior competition was 47β9. From , Sharapova played a full season and made a rapid climb into the top 50 by the end of the year. Sharapova was defeated in the third round of the Australian Open by sixth seed Anastasia Myskina.
