Last Updated on December 26, 2021
Maria Sharapova is a former Russian tennis player, who has a net worth more than 325 000 000$ according to the last counting by Forbes. Maria is a famous tennis champion, who winning 36 titles in total, and she is the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam.
Childhood and youth
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova was born on April 19, 1987 in Nyagan. The girl’s parents moved to this town in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug of Russia from Belarus shortly before the birth of Masha.
However, after that, the girl’s family decided to choose a place of residence for Sochi, where Sharapova and took her first steps in tennis. Engage in a sport that would later bring her worldwide fame, Masha started at four.
When she was six, she played a training match with tennis legend Martina Navratilova. She recognized Masha’s talent and advised Yuri Sharapov to develop it, recommend doing it in the USA, at the popular tennis academy of Nick Bollettieri.
| Net Worth | 325 000 000$ |
|---|---|
| Born | April 19, 1987 Nyagan, Russian SFSR |
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| Turned pro | 19 April 2001 |
| Retired | 26 February 2020 |
| Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
Maria Sharapova in childhood
It was difficult to say that Masha was hard to say nothing, but it definitely hardened the athletes’ morale. Anyway, after six years of hard and long classes, Sharapova took part in her first “adult” tournament, although the girl was then 14 years old.
By the way, by that time she was already a kind of local star – at 13 years old Masha won a major junior tournament, for which she received a special award as a gifted and promising tennis player.
But in the WTA debut tournament, the girl was not lucky – she dropped out after the second round. Of course, this upset Masha, but pushed him to work even harder, and soon the tennis player reached the junior finals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon and won two ITF titles.
Youth and first successes
In 2003, through qualifications, the girl made her way into the main net of an adult Australian Open, where, however, she lost in the first round. But Maria did not give up again, won the qualifying round and got to the Roland Garros competition, where she played only in the first round.
However, in the same year she was lucky – Maria reached the semifinal of the tournament in Birmingham, which allowed Sharapova to get into the hundred best tennis players in the world. But the girl failed to repeat this success at Wimbledon.
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Then Maria took part in several tournaments – not as big as the previous ones, but again she could not reach the final.
However, in the same 2003, the girl’s perseverance played a role – she won the competition in Tokyo and won her first adult prize, more precisely, even two – in singles and doubles (with Tamarin Tanasugarn).
After that, Maria has been given a full-time fair – rewards for tournaments in Luxembourg (doubles) and Quebec, as well as a special WTA prize – “Newcomer of the Year” have been added to her piggy bank.
The year 2004 was marked by a series of tournaments, in some of which Sharapova reached the finals, but the first victory was the competition in Birmingham, and again – the double (single and doubles with Maria Kirilenko).
However, the main achievement of that year was the title of the Grand Slam tournament – in the Wimbledon final, Sharapova beat the American Serena Williams, who would later spoil the Russian woman a lot of blood and nerves.
Maria was only 17, and she became the first representative of Russia who won this prestigious tournament. By the way, that victory allowed her to rise in eighth place in the WTA ranking.
There was nothing left before the leadership position, and Sharapova persisted in this. Also in 2004, the athlete won a number of tournaments, in particular, the competition in Seoul and Tokyo, as well as the WTA Final Championship, which had not been possible for any Russian woman before.
By the way, in the final of those final competitions, Sharapova defeated Serena Williams for the second and last time (as of January 2018). Maria finished the year in fourth place in the ranking.
The heyday of a career and a break in performances
The 2005 started for the athlete not so successfully – in the Australian Open she lost to Serena Williams, in several tournaments she could not reach the final, but she nevertheless gathered and won the Doha tournament, and then repeated last year’s success in Birmingham.
In the summer of the same year, Sharapova decided to conquer Wimbledon again, but in the semifinals she stumbled over the second of the Williams sisters – Venus. This was followed by several failures when she was unable to reach the final, for example, at the US Open Maria only made it to the semifinals, but appearances at prestigious tournaments allowed her to score points and, finally, temporarily lead the elite of women’s tennis.
However, after a series of not the most successful performances and the skipping of competitions, 2005 finished Maria on the fourth line of the rating.
In 2006, Sharapova won tournaments in Indian Wells, San Diego, Zurich and Linz, and also for the first time in her career – the US Open. Maria finished the year on the second line of the ranking, so she still had much to strive for.
However, in 2007, the Russian woman won only one tournament – in San Diego, all other competitions ended in failure for her – that is, in several cases she reached the final, but was inferior to her rivals. The result – a fall to fifth place in the ranking for the year.
2008 was a bit more successful – Sharapova won three titles (Amelia Island, Doha and the Australian Open), and also made her debut as a member of the Russian national team in the Federation Cup, where she helped the national team to reach the semi-finals.
From August 2008 to March 2009, Sharapova did not go to court. The girl suffered a shoulder injury and underwent surgery.
Return to the court and the Olympics
After a short period of rehabilitation, Maria attempted to return to the line, but at the Indian Wells tournament won only one match together with Elena Vesnina.
The following tournaments with Sharapova were also not successful for her – the consequences of the injury affected.
But she still won one tournament – Tokyo submitted to her on refusal in the final of Elena Jankovic. The result of the year is the 14th place in the women’s tennis “Table of Ranks”.
Video: Maria Sharapova Quotes
2010 brought the Russian woman only two wins – in tournaments in Strasbourg and Memphis, but a series of losses (often in the initial stages) in major tournaments did not allow Maria to rise in the rankings. Moreover, she finished the year even worse than the previous one – in 18th place.
2011 was a little more successful – Maria reached the final and semi-final stages of many tournaments, and two of them – in Cincinnati and Rome – won, which allowed her to return to the top ten tennis players in the world (fourth place).
The year 2012 began very successfully for the athlete, and continued too – she was conquered by Rome and Stuttgart, and at the end of the curtain – “Roland Garros”. By the way, thanks to the last tournament, Maria was able to temporarily rise to the first place in the WTA ranking and collect the so-called career helmet, that is, the titles of all Grand Slam tournaments.
In July of the same year, Sharapova became the standard-bearer of the Russian team at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London and for the first time participated in the Olympics as an athlete. But for the only Games in her life, Maria got only silver – in the final the Russian woman lost to her eternal rival Serena Williams.
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After that, the tennis player missed several tournaments, did not achieve particular success in those in which she still participated, and in the final of the Final Championship, the WTA stumbled over Serena Williams again and finished the year in second place in the rankings.
2013 was full of ups and downs, but the latter was still more. Maria took off from several tournaments because of injuries, and only two titles could win – in Stuttgart and Indian Wells – and for the year became only the fourth of the best.
2014 became more successful for Maria than the previous one – she won tournaments in Beijing, Madrid and Stuttgart, and also won her fifth title in the “Grand Slam” series – she conquered Roland Garros. All this, plus the final and semi-final stages of other tournaments allowed the Russian woman to climb to second place in the WTA rating.
The year 2015 was marked for Sharapova with two victories in the finals – in Rome and Brisbane, as well as the matches of the Federation Cup in the Russian team.
Interestingly, in the Australian Open final, Maria was again stopped by Serena Williams. That season the Russian woman finished on the fourth line of the rating of successful tennis players.
Infographic: Rating of Maria Sharapova
Dope scandal and return to the big tennis
In 2016, Sharapova managed to take part in just one tournament – the Australian Open, where Williams lost in the quarterfinals, and then a dope scandal broke out, costing Maria all her achievements – the athlete was excluded from the WTA rating.
It all started with the announcement of the results of doping – in the blood of Sharapova, taken on January 26, 2016 in Melbourne, meldonium was discovered, and the girl had to admit to using it. However, at an urgent press conference, Maria said that she did it unintentionally.
The fact is that before January 1, 2016, the drug was not yet on the list of prohibited for athletes, and she did not know about the change in the rules of the tennis player, but Meldonium took it as a therapy.
Nevertheless, the International Tennis Federation removed Sharapova from the competition for two years, but after the appeal the period of disqualification was reduced to 15 months.
The time of forced “idle time” in a career cost Sharapova a number of sponsors and participation in the 2016 Olympics, not to mention the subsequent doping scandal with other Russian athletes and numerous jokes about Maria and doping. So, for example, the team of the Higher League of KVN “Asia MIX” joked that Sharapova had “victory in blood”.
But anyway, being overboard of tennis, Maria did not lose time, but came to grips with her business projects, in particular, the development of the Shugarpova brand (sweets) and the writing of her autobiography.
As an epigraph, the athlete chose the words of the South African politician Nelson Mandela: “Judge me not by my success, but by how many times I fell and rose again.”
At that time, Maria wrote in social networks: “To get up again, I’m ready for anything. No words, games or actions can stop me on my way to dreams, of which I have many. ”
However, in Stuttgart, Maria stopped literally on the verge of victory – in the semifinals, the Russian woman lost to Christine Mladenovic. Calling 2017, the year when Russians returned to the court, cannot be very successful for Maria.
After Stuttgart, Sharapova, for various reasons, refused to participate in a number of tournaments, and in those where she played, did not go beyond the fourth round.
Good luck smiled at her only in October 2017, when Maria won the not very prestigious tournament in Tianjin, but nevertheless won her first title after the suspension and finished the year on the 57th line of the WTA rating, where she was again included.
In 2018, the Russian woman did not win a single title. At the Grand Slam tournaments, the best result was a pass to the quarterfinals of Roland Garros, where Maria lost to Garbin Muguruza.
In 2019, Maria took part in three tournaments. In Ginseng, she lost in the quarterfinal of the Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka. At the Australian Open, Maria failed to overcome Ashleigh Barty resistance in the fourth round. At the tournament in St. Petersburg, Maria suffered a shoulder injury, after which she continues to recover.
Main Highlights From Maria Sharapova Career
- The owner of non-calendar (“career” Grand Slam) in singles.
- Five-time Grand Slam winner in singles.
- The winner of 39 WTA tournaments (36 – in singles).
- The winner of the final championship WTA (2004) in singles.
- The winner of the Federation Cup (2008) and the finalist (2015).
- 2012 Olympic silver medalist in singles.
What Is Maria Sharapova Net Worth?
When the athlete was only 12 years old, she began a collaboration with Max Eisenbud. This man is her agent to this day. In 2003, Ayzenbad negotiated a contract with the first major sponsor, Sharapova. They became the manufacturer of mobile phones Motorola. According to Western media reports, the agreement brought the girl more than one million dollars a year. Since 2004, TAG Heuer, Colgate & Palmolive, Land Rover, Tiffany & Co, Head, Samsung, Porsche and Evian have become sponsors of tennis. The value of contracts with these brands ranged from three to nine million dollars annually.
But it overtook all the technical sponsor of the tennis player – Nike. He supported the Russian woman from the age of 11, and in 2010 he proposed a record agreement to Sharapova. Under the terms of this contract, in the eight years of cooperation, the tennis player was to receive $ 70 million. Maria has been an ambassador for Nike in Europe and North America for many years, and in return received exclusive outfits for the court. Sharapova’s dresses for several seasons in a row were recognized as the best on the tour.
In 2012, Sharapova launched a line of Sugarpova’s own sweets. Three years later, the sales of sweets reached five million packages a year, and the income from them amounted to about $ 20 million. At the same time, an athlete spent only half a million on creating a business.
You can go to the salon and dye your hair blonde, but it won’t be successful. For this, you need something more.
As a result, the Russian has entered the list of the most highly paid athletes of the decade (2005-2015), according to Forbes, taking the 18th place with a total income of $ 250 million. In the period from June 1, 2014 to June 1, 2015, she earned 29.2 million. In this case, the official prize amounted to slightly more than six million, and the rest, Mary earned on advertising.
Recently, Maria Sharapova conducted a tour for Architectural Digest journalists on her new mansion in Los Angeles.
The three-storey house of the athlete is located near the ocean. From here there is a magnificent view of the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Malibu.
Despite its location, the Sharapova mansion does not look like typical beach houses in this region.
According to Forbes, the state of Maria Sharapova in 2019 is estimated at more than 195 million dollars.
Maria Sharapova announced her retirement at the end of February 2020.
Forbes experts estimated that Sharapova earned $ 325 million per career (38 million – prize money, 287 million – income from sponsors and business).
