Sunday, 22 February 2026
Sunday, 22 February 2026
1. Russian-born, US-bred Maria Sharapova’s name became etched in public memory for posterity ever since she, seeded 13 and aged 17 then, caused a heroic upset — “the most stunning upset in memory” according to tennis pundits — in the 2004 Wimbledon by beating top seed and defending champion Serena Williams 6-1, 6-4. Having debuted only in 2001, she became the fourth-youngest woman to ever win the Big W. That put Sharapova on the tennis map and also marked the start of a spectacular rivalry between Williams and her, both on and off court, in the form of personal jibes and a mention in Sharapova’s autobiography titled Unstoppable: My Life So Far. However, since 2004, Sharapova has only managed to beat Williams once while getting beaten by her 20 times. But “Maria Mania” had already begun and how! The world — and sponsors — could not get enough of this 6’2’’ stunner.
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2. After clinching the #1 spot on the WTA rankings in 2005 and becoming the first Russian woman to do so, Sharapova clinched her second Grand Slam title at NYC’s Flushing Meadows in 2006. An impressive feat of her US Open victory is that she beat Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin, en route to it. This year also marked her getting named as the highest-paid female athlete in the world by Forbes and she continued to top this list for 10 consecutive years.
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3. After a couple of years of getting plagued by injuries, Sharapova won the Australian Open in 2008, beating an impressive line-up of competitors while on her way to it, including former world #1 Lindsay Davenport, Justine Henin and Ana Ivanovic, without dropping a single set while at it.
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4. Sharapova became one of only six women in the Open era to have won a Career Grand Slam after clinching the French Open title in 2012, which also allowed her to regain her #1 spot. Sharapova has often admitted that the clay courts at Roland-Garros gave her a hard time but in her farewell essay, she acknowledged that overcoming those courts twice “felt good”.
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6. It’s no secret that there was no love lost between Sharapova and the other Russian female tennis players, with locker-room politics often spilling onto NYT’s infamous Page Six columns, given her popularity. Sharapova did not just fight her way into the Russian Fed Team but also eventually became the first woman ever to be the flag-bearer for the Russian contingent during the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. She eventually went on to win silver in the women’s singles event. Despite training in Miami, Sharapova has always been vocal about her patriotic loyalties and in Unstoppable, she gives us a rare glimpse into her love for her homeland’s culture and how her mother, Yelena, inculcated in her the habit of reading Russian classics.
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7. In an announcement that shocked the world, Sharapova called a press conference where she admitted she had tested positive for meldonium in a drug test right after the 2016 Australian Open. The rest of the story of her four-year-turned-two-year-turned-15-month ban played out in the media and she came back triumphant to win the Tianjin Open in 2017.
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