Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova is a Russian professional tennis player who is currently ranked 3 on the WTA rankings. Sharapova has won a total of 35 professional titles including all four grand slam tournaments making her one of ten women ever to complete a career grand slam. Her tennis success came at an extremely young age when she won the Wimbledon Championships in 2004 at aged just 17. As well as being so successful in grand slams, Maria Sharapova has also won an Olympic medal as she won a silver medal in the London Olympic Games falling to Serena Williams in the final. Sharapova as well as being famous for her outstanding tennis abilities is also well-known for her modelling having been on the cover of numerous magazines and being the cover-girl for several brands.

Playing Style

Maria Sharapova is an aggressive baseliner who is known for her powerful groundstroke shots from both sides of her racket. In her early career, Sharapova was well regarded for her powerful serve however, due to a number of shoulder injuries coming in 2007 and 2009 Sharapova's serve has weakened becoming more of a liability than an asset. For being a women standing 6"2 tall, Maria Sharapova's movement is very impressive as she uses her long legs to move around the court quickly. The most famous thing about Maria Sharapova's game is her return of serve, some say it is the best of all time as she lunges her full weight of her body into the shot which in turns creates a lot of power and depth on her return which opponents find difficult to handle.

Endorsements

Sharapova's tennis success gave her opportunities to endorsements that helped succeeded her tennis winnings by a long way. Since 2004, Maria Sharapova has been involved with companies and brands such as Motorola, Land Rover and Canon. Currently, Sharapova is sponsored by HEAD as well as Novak Djokovic, she has done many advertisements with the tennis brand which as truly helped the brand to blossom according to chief manager of HEAD. She has been listed on the Forbes list of top ten female athletes as well has being included in the top 50 most beautiful celebrities in the world.

An example of Maria Sharapova's modelling

Head to head against other WTA stars

Sharapova vs Wozniacki ( 6-4 )

Sharapova vs Kvitova ( 5-2 )

Sharapova vs Ivanovic ( 10-4 )

Sharapova vs Radwanska ( 12-2 )