Her recent climb to the summit of the world rankings has come as no surprise to those who watched in awe as the virtually unknown Sharapova clinched the Wimbledon title four years ago.Her incredibly victory over Serena Williams was the start of a new era for woman’s tennis.
Not only did she instantly book her place in history as the third youngest Wimbledon ladies champion of all time, but she changed the face of the game. Now one of the most marketable and recognized faces in sport, Sharapova endorses products for big name companies such as Motorola, Canon, TAG Heuer & Colgate-Palmolive amongst others.
She has recently created her own perfume, and it seems as though there is little Sharapova can do wrong. She is a shining example of a professional athlete and a great role model to thousand of aspiring tennis players. The first Russian to be world No. 1, Sharapova has inspired a generation of youngsters.
Admittedly, she is not the complete player and still has a long way to go to achieve her undoubted potential. With the coaching of Robert Lansdorp, the man responsible for nurturing Pete Sampras and the management of her doting father, it is unimaginable that someone so genuinely gifted will not leave a lasting legacy on the game she was born to play.
Former
stars have come out in their droves to lavish praise on the new
superstar of the WTA tour. Attendances are on the up, media interest in
the once boring and undesirable, and ‘second rate’ ladies tennis is
lively once more.
Yet
beneath Maria Sharapovas precocious rise to fame lays a darker more
disturbing story. Born in Nyagan, in the Siberian region of Russia,
Maria first picked up a racket at the tender age of four. Incredibly
only a year later, she was spotted by tennis legend Martina Navratilova,
who advised Maria’s parents to send her to the Nick Bollettieri tennis
academy in the United States. In 1995 Maria, accompanied by her parents,
embraced upon her American dream. She instantly won a place at the
academy astounding her coaches with such natural ability, inexhaustible
energy, and raw talent, which many of them had never witnessed before in
their lives. Yet success was to come at a price for Maria, who did not
see her mother for two years as a result of visa restrictions and the
family’s restrictive financial situation.
Some 20,000 miles away from her mother and
her homeland a nine-year-old Maria Sharapova had embarked upon her
rapid rise to stardom. The pain and heartache she suffered through this
unsettling period are not reflected in the girl we see walking out onto
court today. She is confident, composed, and entirely focused on her
opponent. Winning is her passion, and she is relentless in
her approach to it. Her experiences in America have made her stronger
as a person, not just as an athlete.
She puts much of her phenomenal success
down to her parents influence and is forever indebted to them for the
sacrifices they made. Her family is her core, she is not some wild
party animal merely entertaining tennis to fuel her erratic lifestyle
like so many fellow ‘prodigies’ who have fallen from stardom. When
Sharapova first burst onto the scene in 2002, comparisons were instantly
drawn with Anna Kournikova, the Russian beauty who retired at just 24.
But those comparisons were ill-advised, while Kournikova fell by the way
side and pursued a career in modeling Sharapova emerged as Wimbledon
champion.
She has revolutionized the way the ladies
game is looked upon; her intrepid, hard-hitting and at times
un-returnable power has guided her to 19 WTA titles in a breathtaking
career which is surely set to hit great heights. Her insatiable desire
for winning, her limitless talent and her infatuation with tennis make
her one of the most exciting talents to embrace the game in recent
times.
Her
winning mentality is faultless, her weaknesses unapparent, and her
approach fearles. In Maria Sharapova, tennis has found a new superstar.
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