Maria Sharapova is a Russian tennis player, born April 19, 1987, in Nyagan, Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. Yuri Sharapov and Yelena, her parents, are from Gomel, Byelorussian SSR. They left their homeland just before Maria was born.

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When Sharapova was three years old, her family relocated to Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Her father, Yuri, became friends with Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny went on to win two Grand Slam singles titles and become Russia’s first world No. 1 tennis player. When Sharapova was four years old, Aleksandr gave her her first tennis racquet, and she began practising with her father at a nearby park. Maria began her tennis lessons with legendary Russian coach Yuri Yudkin.

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She is a former world number one. From 2001 to 2020, she competed on the WTA Tour and was rated world No. 1 in singles for 21 weeks by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). She is one of just eight women and the only Russian to complete the career Grand Slam. She is also an Olympic medallist, having won silver in the women’s singles event at the London Olympics in 2012.

Sharapova achieved world No. 1 status for the first time on 22 August 2005, at the age of 18, being the first Russian woman to do so. She held the title for a fifth time for four weeks, from 11 June to 8 July 2012.  She won five major championships, including two at the French Open and one each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.

In total, she won 36 trophies, including the year-end championships in her debut in 2004. She also won three doubles championships. Although she competed for Russia in the WTA, she has lived in and been a permanent resident of the United States since 1994.

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Sharapova failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open, testing positive for meldonium, a chemical banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (effective January 1, 2016). (WADA). The International Tennis Federation stopped her from playing tennis for 15 months on October 4, 2016.

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She has been the face of several fashion houses, most notably Cole Haan, and has been in numerous campaigns, including those for Nike, Prince, and Canon. She has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme since February 2007, focusing on the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme.

Time named her one of the “30 Legends of Women’s Tennis: Past, Present, and Future” in June 2011, and Tennis Channel named her one of the “100 Greatest of All Time” in March 2012. She has been named the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 years in a row, earning US$285 million, according to Forbes.

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Sharapova is dating British businessman Alexander Gilkes. Sharapova and Gilkes got engaged in December 2020 and are now expecting their first child.