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In tennis, those that are at the top of their game can become global icons as the sport takes them to compete around the world. This has produced many celebrities over the years, and that includes Maria Sharapova. She’s hard to miss, standing at a towering 6’2”, and her success on the court has helped to increase her starpower. Though she might be at the end of her professional tennis career, you can rest assure that she’ll not be leaving the spotlight anytime soon.

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Sharapova was born in the Siberian region of Russia when it was the USSR on April 19, 1987. The family moved to Sochi, Russia when she was a toddler, however, and it made sense that she would eventually train to become a tennis player as her father had been among the best men’s players in the country during his prime. Sharapova started taking lessons early on, and coaches saw a lot of potential early on.

Because of that, the Sharapova family had spent basically their entire savings to move to the United States to train in Florida at an academy that had produced some of the world’s top players. By the time she was a teenager, Sharapova was already being players in older age groups and was even qualifying on a professional level. At just 14 years old, she was qualifying for junior grand slams and was a top 50 player with the pro tour.

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As she entered the prime of her career, Sharapova’s results at tournaments continued to improve. In her second full season as a professional in 2004, Sharapova had reached the quarterfinals of the French Open and then had her first grand slam final, facing off against Serena Williams at Wimbledon that year. Sharapova ultimately won, marking her first grand slam title and earning the world’s number one ranking in 2005.

All in all, Sharapova had taken home the top ranking in women’s tennis, and has been the world’s top player on five different occasions, spending a total of 21 weeks in the number one spot. During her career, Sharapova has won 36 different singles tournaments, including five grand slam titles. After her first at Wimbledon, Sharapova won a title at the US Open and Australian Open, as well as two wins at the French Open in 2012 and 2014, which is her most recent grand slam victory.

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Things took a sharp turn for Sharapova’s career in 2016 after she was dealing with injury problems that affected her play. Then, at the Australian Open that year, Sharapova was suspended from the WTA after she had tested positive for a banned substance, and she was looking at a two year suspension. However, the suspension was reduced to 15 months and she made her return to professional tennis in 2017.

“Tennis is my passion and I have missed it,” Sharapova said during her suspension. “I am counting the days until I can return to the court...In so many ways, I feel like something I love was taken away form me and it will feel really good to have it back.” It was a hard time for Sharapova, who added that “When you’re going through tough moments, you never know when you’re going to have good moments.”

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Though there was some controversy in the later parts of her career, Sharapova has still remained one of the most marketable tennis stars of all-time. On top of the millions that she’s earned from competing in tennis matches, Sharapova has also inked many endorsement deals. This includes contracts that have been worth millions from companies like tennis giant Head, as well as companies like TAG Heuer and Nike. On top of that, Sharapova has her own business in the candy world, being sold in thousands of stores. Because of all of this, Sharapova’s estimated net worth is now around $300 million.

Now about to enter her mid-30s, Sharapova is certainly in the later parts of her career as many professional tennis players don’t play for much longer after turning 30. Sharapova was still competing recently, but has missed a lot of matches due to a lingering injury. Because of this, there have been a lot of murmurs about Sharapova possibly retiring from professional tennis and focusing on the next part of her life.

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“Obviously the shoulder (injury) hasn’t been much of a secret in the past year,” Sharapova said in 2019. “That’s something I have been struggling with and had to shut down the season after the US Open. Still not where I want to be. Still working through some painful things.” She added that “You realize you’re not immortal, you’re never going to play this forever, even though we have done it as long as we can think of. Yeah, and life moves on. But that’s, I don’t know, I look at that as an exciting chapter and not in a very sad way.”

“The way I handle my career today is the way I’ll handle my life in 10, 20 years, and that’s extremely important to me...When you say you’re going to finish, it’s like, you’re cutting something, you’re letting go, cutting ties with something that’s been a part of your life for a very long time...But at one point, life goes on and there's a lot of things to look forward to. You have family, children, other business ventures. To me, that doesn’t make me sad. That makes me excited.”