Sharapova is like a tea bag. Put her into hot water and you’ll find out how strong she is.” Judy Murray has never been famed for her similes, but to take hers to its logical conclusion, we can say with some assurance that Maria Sharapova is one strong cup of tea. It seemed apt considering she has just won the 2014 Ladies Singles French Open Title to look back on the career of this tennis goddess.
Maria described her latest victory as the “hardest” she had faced in her 13 year career. Having dispatched Simona Halep of Romania (6-4, 6-7, 6-4) she now looks on to gain her second Wimbledon title.
She was the youngest ever girl to reach the final of the Australian Open Junior tennis championships at 14, and then she burst onto the tennis scene at the tender age of 14 playing in a WTA tournament at the Pacific Life Open in 2002.
Success followed swiftly. She won her first Wimbledon title at just 17, beating Serena Williams in the 2004 final as 13th seed, being the third youngest person to win the title. That same year she won the WTA Tour Championships.
Sharapova’s start to her career was all the more impressive considering the number of strong competitors she had to encounter in the woman’s game; names like the Williams sisters, Justine Henin, Lindsay Davenport, Kim Clijsters, and AmeÌlie Mauresmo. She by no means dominated. When she initially broke to the number 1 spot in the world it was swiftly taken back by Lindsay Davenport after just one week in October 2005.
Despite the early success, rather than im- prove with age and experience, Sharapova seemed to be on the decline. Suffering from a reoccurring shoulder problem, she failed to hold onto the number one spot for a significant amount of time, succumbing to several high profile defeats, most notably in the Wimbledon tournament of 2008, having already relinquished top ranking in the world after the French Open of that year, where she lost to no154 Alla Kurdryavtseva in the 2nd round of the tournament.
Her rotator cuff tear severely damaged her career. In 2009 she was forced to take time out to recover from surgery, and dropped out of the top 100. Since then her serve has no longer had the power it once did, and as a result she has committed a significantly higher number of double faults.
Despite this, true to form, and like the proverbially strong cup of tea that she is, Sharapova returned with aplomb in 2011. She regained her spot in the top ten with a number of important victories on the tour, and came second in both the Wimble- don and Australian Open Championships. Within a year she held both the French and Australian opens. She has now won a career grand slam, and can also include an Olympic silver medal from London 2012 on her CV. Her playing style has been the subject of much praise too. Her highly individual style includes the unconventional use of the re- verse backhand, and the Sharapova “grunt” which apparently reached 101 decibels at the 2005 Wimbledon.
With over 30 tour titles, five grand slams, and innumerable modelling contracts, she’s not just a sporting star, but a style icon too.
