Maria Sharapova (born April 19, 1987) is a Russian
professional tennis player. As of February 11, 2013 she is
ranked world no. 3. A United States resident since 1994,
Sharapova has won 27 WTA singles titles, including four
Grand Slam singles titles. She has also won the year-end WTA
Tour Championships in 2004.
The Women's Tennis Association has ranked Sharapova world no.
1 in singles on five separate occasions, for a total of 21
weeks. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on
August 22, 2005, and regained the ranking for the fifth time
on June 11, 2012. She has been in seven Grand Slam finals
with a record of 4–3.
Sharapova made her professional breakthrough in 2004 at age
17, when she defeated two-time defending champion and top
seed Serena Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final for her
first Grand Slam singles title. She entered the top 10 of
the WTA Rankings with the win. The world no. 1 ranking
followed in 2005, along with subsequent major titles at the
2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open, before she was forced
out of the game for ten months by a recurring shoulder
injury, which ultimately required surgery in October 2008.
Sharapova returned to the game in May 2009, returning to the
top 10 in March 2011 and capturing her fourth Grand Slam
title at the 2012 French Open. By doing so, she became the
sixth woman in the Open Era to complete the career Grand
Slam. In the same year, she won an Olympic silver medal in
the London 2012 Olympics. Sharapova has been featured in a
number of modeling assignments, including a feature in the
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
She has been featured in many advertisements, including for
Nike, Prince, and Canon, and is the face of several fashion
houses, most notably Cole Haan. Sharapova was the most
searched-for athlete on Yahoo! in 2005 and 2008. Since
February 2007, she has been a United Nations Development
Programme Goodwill Ambassador, concerned specifically with
the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme. In June
2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's
Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time, and in March 2012
was named one of the "100 Greatest of All Time" by Tennis
Channel.
Biography
Maria Sharapova born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player. As of February 25, 2013 she is ranked world no. 3.
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