Maria Sharapova is a professional tennis player from Russia who plays right handed and has won around 23 WTA titles since turning pro in 2001. She has been ranked No. 1 in Singles in 2005, 2008 and on two other occasions. She has a career record of 401 wins and 98 losses and has win-loss ratio of 80.36%. She has won 3 grand slam titles so far including Wimbledon in 2004. Her nickname is Masha and hence is also called Maria Sharapova Masha.

Early Life:

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova was born on April 19, 1987 in Nyagan city of Russia to the pair of Yury and Yelena. She got her first tennis racket from Aleksandr at the age of 4. Yuri Yutkin was her first coach when she first started training.
 
Due to poor financial conditions her father was forced to borrow money from other sources to allow his daughter to travel to America for Professional Training. But fortunes turned and in 1995 she was invited by International Management Group (IMG) to get training at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, Florida and paid her fees. She was 9 then.

Tennis Career:

Maria Sharapova first played in Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships at the age of 13 and won the tournament. She played her first Professional Tennis at the age of 16 years when she participated in Pacific Life Open.  She lost to Monica Seles.   Still as a junior player she participated in Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2002 and was the youngest to reach the finals.

By the end of year 2003 she was among top 50 in the world. She played her first French and Australian Open in 2003 but was unsuccessful. She won her first major WTA event in Japan Open Tennis Championship in September 2003.

Aged only 17 and seeded 13th she had a good run-up to the mother of all tennis tournaments Wimbledon defeating Tatiana Golovin in DFS Classic final. At Wimbledon she upset the then champion and No.1 ranked Serena Williams to become the third youngest player to win the championship. She was the second Russian to do so. In the run-up to the final she defeated Ai Sugiyama in quarterfinals and Lindsay Davenport in semifinals. As a result she stormed into the world top 10.

During 2005 season she won 2 back to back tournaments and DFS Classic, reached semifinals of WTA tournaments 6 times, and finals on 2 occasions loosing on both. She reached No. 1 ranking on August 2005 when the then world No.1 davenport sustained injuries and could not participate in WTA events.

In 2006 she won only two titles, first Indian Wells after 9 months and then her second Grand Slam in the form of US open defeating Justine Henin. She finished 2006 as world No. 2.

She won her third Grand Slam title in 2008 defeating Ana Ivanović in the Australian Open. She again became No. 1 after Justin Henin announced retirement. But that success was short as she lost to Dinara Safina in quarterfinal of French Open.

In 2009 came the lean period when she was ousted from top 10 resulting from series of losses. She started as No. 126 but finished the year as World No. 14. After winning Tokyo Open. Year 2010 went without much success and she was ranked No. 18 at the end.

But fortunes turned in 2011 when she changed her coach and started training under Thomas Hogstedt. She participated in many exhibition matches and winning them, before playing her first grand slam of the season Australian Open and losing to Andrea Petkovic in the fourth round. She reached the final of Sony Ericsson Open and returned to top 10.

Currently she is ranked 5th following run-up to the final of Wimbledon 2011 where she was defeated by Petra Kvitova. Her till date prize money is $16,030,304.

Awards & Achievements:

List of awards won by Maria Sharapova includes:

• WTA Newcomer of the Year (2003)
• WTA Player of the Year (2004)
• ESPY Best Female Tennis Player (2005)
• Whirlpool 6th Sense Player of the Year (2006)
• ESPN Hottest Female Athlete (2007)
• ESPY Best Female Tennis Player (2008)
• WTA Fan Favorite Singles Player (2010)
• WTA Most Fashionable Player (On Court & Off Court 2010)
• WTA Most Dramatic Expression (2010)

Grand Slam Titles:

• Wimbledon (2004)
• US Open (2006)
• Australian Open (2008)

Other Achievements:

• Goodwill Ambassador for UNDP
• Named in Forbes 100 Celebrities in 2011
• World’s Highest Paid Female Athlete in 2008 ($26 m)
• World’s Highest Paid Female Athlete in 2010 ($ 24.5 m)
• Eight year contract with Nike worth 70 million dollar.