Goodbye: Sharapova calls it a day

Paris, February 26

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Five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, one of the world’s most recognisable sportswomen, today announced her retirement at the age of 32.

“Tennis — I’m saying goodbye,” Sharapova said in an article for Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines. “After 28 years and five Grand Slam titles, though, I’m ready to scale another mountain — to compete on a different type of terrain.”

Sharapova burst onto the scene as a supremely gifted teenager and won her Grand Slams before serving a 15-month ban for failing a drugs test at the 2016 Australian Open. The Russian former world No. 1’s ranking is currently 373rd. Sharapova has hardly played in the past year because of long-standing shoulder problems.

When she did play she lost as many matches as she won and was dumped out in the first rounds at the Wimbledon, the US Open and, most recently, the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Sharapova shot to fame as a giggly 17-year-old Wimbledon winner in 2004, the third-youngest player to conquer the All England Club’s hallowed grass courts.

She became world No. 1 in 2005 and won the US Open the next year. “One of the keys to my success was that I never looked back and I never looked forward,” Sharapova said today. But in 2007 Sharapova began her long on-off battle with shoulder trouble. — AFP

Achievements
Major Titles

• Wimbledon (2004), US Open (2006) Australian Open (2008), French Open (2012, 2014)
• other notable facts
• She was the first Russian woman to win Wimbledon in 2004 aged 17, beating holder Serena Williams 6-1 6-4 in the final
• In August 2005, she became the first Russian woman to reach the top of the world rankings
• She was the seventh highest-paid female athlete in the world in 2019, according to Forbes
• Her current ranking is 373rd