Maria Sharapova

In 2008, she had a short lived relationship with TV producer Charlie Ebersol.

In 2009, she began dating Slovenian basketball player Sasha Vujacic and the couple had announced their engagement in 2010. However, Maria Sharapova announced the end of the relationship in 2012.

Maria Sharapova was born on 19 April 1987 to Yuri and Yelena in the Nyagan town of Russia.

In 1994, she moved from Russia to the United States of America along with her father to enroll at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida. Her mother had to stay back in Russia as she did not get visa and joined them after two years.

Maria Sharapova was not granted admission to Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy immediately as she was too young to join the academy. She initially took up tennis training at the Rick Macci Tennis Academy and later signed a deal with the International Management Group (IMG), a global sports and talent organization based in New York.

When Maria Sharapova was merely 13 years old, she won the Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships in the girls’ 16 division and was then awarded the ‘Rising Star’ award.

She began her professional Tennis career in 2001 and made her first WTA debut at the Pacific Life Open in 2002.

Since she was young, there were restrictions on how many professional events she could play. Therefore, she decided to concentrate on junior tournaments. In 2002, she reached the finals of the girls' singles events at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

In 2003, Maria Sharapova made her debut at the Australian Open and French Open, but lost in the first round at both the tournaments. She won her maiden WTA title at the Japan Open Tennis Championship. She was awarded the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2003.

Maria Sharapova’s won her first Grand Slam singles title at the Wimbledon in 2004, at the age of 17, after defeating defending champion Serena Williams. She thus became the second Russian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title. As a result of her win, she entered the top 10 in the rankings for the first time.

She has to her credit 5 Grand Slam Titles – One at Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open and two at French Open along with 35 singles titles.

Maria Sharapova was appointed the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the UNDP specifically for the Chernobyl recovery projects in 2007.

As on 2015, Maria Sharapova is ranked No.3 by the Women’s Tennis Association.

Maria Sharapova was the first torch bearer in the lighting ceremony of Winter Olympics in Russia in 2014.