Maria Sharapova Tennis Player Online Information at WagerWeb Sportsbook

Maria Sharapova Tennis Player Information at WagerWeb Sportsbook

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. She is currently the second ranked female player in the world. At the end of 2006, she was the world's highest-paid female athlete. Sharapova has won two Grand Slam singles titles. She is the reigning U.S. Open champion, having defeated Justine Henin in the final of the 2006 U.S. Open. Two years earlier, she defeated Serena Williams in the final at Wimbledon. Personal life Sharapova's parents moved from Homel, Belarus, to Siberia, Russia, in 1986, after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. She was born the following year in Nyagan, Russia.

Sharapova's father, Yuri Sharapov, brought Maria to the United States to attend the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida when she was 7 years old. Her mother, Yelena, who could not come with them because of visa restrictions, followed a few years later. Sharapova has lived in the United States since then but retains her Russian citizenship.

In 2002, Sharapova bought a beach home in Manhattan Beach, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, but lives most of the year near the IMG training facility in Bradenton with her pomeranian, Dolce, who is featured in one of her advertisements for Canon PowerShot.

Sharapova is good friends with fellow Russian tennis player Maria Kirilenko, American tennis player Andy Roddick and actress Uma Thurman.

She has also called actress Camilla Belle her best friend.

Career

2006: A second major title

At the 2006 Australian Open, Sharapova lost in the semifinals to Justine Henin-Hardenne 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, the only match of the year that she lost after winning the first set.

Sharapova claimed her first title of 2006 and eleventh of her career at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, a Tier 1 event at which she was the third seed. Sharapova and No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva became the first Russians to reach the event's final, with Sharapova triumphing 6-1, 6-2. Soon after, Sharapova lost in the final of the Nasdaq-100 Open to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-3. Had Sharapova won the match, she would've became only the third player (after Steffi Graf and Kim Clijsters) in history to win the Indian Wells-Miami double.

Sharapova participated at the 2006 French Open without having played any of the 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 7-5, 2-6, 7-5, after Sharapova led 5-1 in the third set. Sharapova lost 18 of the match's last 21 points.

Sharapova welcomed the onset of the grass season but failed to add a third successive Birmingham title to her collection, losing in the semifinals to American Jamea Jackson.

For the second consecutive year, Sharapova was defeated in the semifinals of Wimbledon, losing to eventual winner Amélie Mauresmo 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Sharapova claimed her second title of 2006 as the second seed at the Acura Classic in San Diego, defeating top-seeded Kim Clijsters 7-5, 7-5. This was Sharapova's first victory over Clijsters in five meetings. Many believe that this win was the turnaround for this season.

Sharapova played at Los Angeles, but lost to Elena Dementieva in the semifinals. It was her only summer hardcourt lost that year.

Sharapova entered the 2006 U.S. Open seeded third after Clijsters dropped out of the tournament with a wrist injury. Favoured to reach the final, she defeated Mauresmo, the top-ranked player in the world, in a semifinal 6-0, 4-6, 6-0. Sharapova then prevailed over Henin-Hardenne in the final 6-4, 6-4 to win her second Grand Slam title. She joined the list of players who had beaten the Top 2 players in the world to win a Grand Slam, as well as the list of players who had beaten the Top 2 players in a row in the same tournament.

Sharapova won the Zurich Open, defeating Daniela Hantuchová 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in the final. Sharapova then won the Generali Ladies Linz, defeating fellow Russian and defending champion Nadia Petrova 7-5, 6-2, to take her fifth title of 2006 and the 15th title of her career.

Until her loss in the semifinals of the WTA Tour Championships, Sharapova had won 19 consecutive matches. She finished the year with a 59-9 record and won more Tier I titles than any other player.

2007: Middling results

In 2007, Sharapova reached the final of the Watson Water Champions Challenge, an exhibition tournament and warm-up for the 2007 Australian Open, where she was defeated by Kim Clijsters 6-3, 7-6.

At the Australian Open, the top-seeded Sharapova defeated the 62nd-ranked Camille Pin in the first round 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 on her fourth match point. The match was played in air temperatures that exceeded 40 °C (104 °F) and on-court temperatures that exceeded 50 °C (122 °F). In the fourth round, Sharapova defeated compatriot Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-4. In the quarterfinals, Sharapova overcame the twelfth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze 7-6(5), 7-5. She then defeated fourth-seeded Clijsters 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals to reach her first Australian Open final and gain the opportunity to win the only Grand Slam singles title that a Russian woman had not yet won. However, Serena Williams, ranked No. 81 in the world, beat Sharapova easily 6-1, 6-2. Williams was the third-lowest-ranked player in the open era to win a Grand Slam singles title.

Her next tournament was the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, where she was the defending champion and top seed. However, she lost to Zvonareva in the fourth round 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 after leading 5-4 in the second set.

At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Sharapova again lost easily to Serena Williams, this time in the fourth round 6-1, 6-1. In her previous rounds, she had defeated Yung-Jan Chan of Taipei and Venus Williams.

Sharapova was scheduled to play in the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, but a shoulder injury kept her off the tour and prevented her from playing in the Fed Cup tie against Spain and the Qatar Telecom German Open. She was scheduled to make her return to the tour at the Telecom Italia Masters Roma in Rome, but she had to pull out again because, as she said on her official website, she was not ready to play there even though her body was slowly getting better. She finally made her return at the Istanbul Cup, her first clay court tournament of the year, where she lost to Frenchwoman Aravane Rezaï in the semifinals 6-2, 6-4.

Sharapova then reached semifinals of the French Open for the first time in her career. She defeated Patty Schnyder in the fourth round after being down match point, then beat fellow Russian Anna Chakvetadze in the quarterfinals. In her semifinal match she fell to Ana Ivanovic with a lopsided score of 6-2, 6-1.

At the DFS Classic in Birmingham, United Kingdom, Sharapova lost in the final to second seeded Jelena Jankovic 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Sharapova had an indifferent Wimbledon, falling victim to eventual champion Venus Williams, in the fourth round. Sharapova was subdued by Williams' dominant serve and crashed out in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. This was the first time she had lost in a Grand Slam fourth round since the 2006 French Open and the second time she has lost at the fourth round stage in Wimbledon, the first being at the 2003 Wimbledon Championships as a qualifier.

Sharapova was scheduled to play the Fed Cup for Russia in their semifinal tie against the USA during the weekend 14-15 July. However, amid considerable controversy, she withdrew claiming that her shoulder injury that has been bothering her for most of the year is causing problems again. On July 18, three days after Russia booked a place in the final with Italy, team captain Shamil Tarpishchev announced that Sharapova would be ineligible from selection for this year's tournament.

Sharapova supported Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics bid, and the city was eventually chosen to hold the games, becoming the first Russian (as Russian Federation) city on doing so.

On July 25th, Sharapova played World Team Tennis, where she played women´s and mixed doubles. During her mixed doubles match with Rick Leach, she hit a serve that reached 126 mph (201.6 km/h), followed by another of 116 mph (185.6 km/h).

Sharapova then played her first summer hardcourt tournament, the Acura Classic in San Diego, California, where she was the defending champion. This was the final ever edition of the tournament, as it has now been discontinued. Heading into the tournament Sharapova was questioned for her seesaw season, but thus far has shown no signs of rust. Sharapova had also been questioned over her uncharactersitic shaky serves and double faults this season, but she showed no signs of that as well as she hit 9 aces in her second round match, including one that reached 113 mph (181.1 km/h). Later in the tournament, she hit one that reached 184 km/h. The problem had been aggravated by a shoulder injury. Sharapova came through to the final relatively unscathed; she had not lost more than three games in a set, and has not lost more than 5 games in a match. In the final, she faced #11 seed Patty Schnyder and ended up winning 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, claiming her first title of the year and the 16th title of her career. (Until the loss of the second set, Sharapova had won 19 consecutive sets there).

The win propelled Maria to first place in the U.S. Open Series standings. The winner gets a bonus 1 million dollars with however much they make at the U.S. Open. Last year, Maria finished 2nd and got a bonus .5 million along with her 1.2 million dollar check for her title win. She received 1.7 million in a single night, the second highest payday in women's tennis history. The record is held by Kim Clijsters, who had recieved 2.2 million at the 2005 Open after she won the title as well as the series.

Her current tournament is the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles, California. As the top seed, she had a first round bye. She faced Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the second round. Sharapova was leading 7-6(5), 3-1 when her opponent retired injured. She then survived a marathon against Netherland´s unseeded Michaëlla Krajicek. Sharapova was down 2-4 in the second and was able to take the set to a tie-break, but she lost it 7-3. She then was twice a break down in the third, but eventually she prevailed 7-6(4),6-7(3),6-4 in 2 hours and 47 minutes. In the quarters she faced the number 9 seed and defending champion Elena Dementieva, who beat Maria in the semis last year. Maria then moves into the semis after winning in straight sets 6-3 6-4 in 1 hour and 30 minutes after breaking Dementieva 5 times with Dementieva breaking Maria once in each set. She was scheduled to face another fellow Russian Nadia Petrova, but she retired from the match with a shin injury. Sharapova has already pulled out of the Rogers Cup and faces a race against time to be fit for the U.S. Open.

Though her withdrawal from the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Sharapova will remain No.2 heading into the US Open. She has been into the Top 2 since November of 2006.

The US open draw was released on August 22nd; Sharapova is the defending champion and will play Roberta Vinci in the first round. The first seed she could meet is #30 seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the third round.

Awards

2003

* Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Newcomer of the Year

2004

* WTA Player of the Year
* WTA Most Improved Player of the Year
* WTA Player Service

2005

* ESPY Best Female Tennis Player
* Named the country's best female player for the year by Russia's tennis federation
* Master of Sports of Russia
* Prix de Citron Roland Garros

2006

* Named the country's best female player for the year by Russia's tennis federation

2007

* ESPY Best Female Tennis Player
* ESPY Best International Female Athlete

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