Maria Sharapova
Despite her young age Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova already is a three-time Grand Slam event winner.
In 2004, she defeated Serena Williams to take the Wimbledon Championship at the age of 17. Two years later, she beat Justine Henin in the final of the 2006 U.S. Open and at the 2008 Australian Open she overpowered Ana Ivanovic for the title.
Sharapova turned professional in 2001, but started playing Women’s Tennis Association tour events full-time until 2003. In that year she earned 34 wins and just 11 losses and made her grand slam debut in the Australian Open.
That same year she qualified for the French Open and progressed to the fourth round at Wimbledon, the best-ever performance by a female wild card. She also won two professional titles: Quebec City and the Japan Open, and by the end of the year she was ranked 32 in the world.
In 2004, when Sharapova stunned Wimbledon by defeating champion Serena Williams she became the first Russian to win a Wimbledon singles title and the third youngest women's champion in history.
In 2005 she achieved her second straight Top 5 finish in a season highlighted by her rise to No.1 (first time ever for a Russian woman) and three more Tour singles titles. At the U.S. Open, Sharapova lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Kim Clijsters. In fact Sharapova lost to the eventual champion in all four Grand Slam events of 2005.
She also defeated Justin Henin and Venus Williams en route to the final of the Miami Masters, then known as the NASDAQ 100 Open, where she lost to Kim Clijsters.
In 2006 Sharapova had her best season to date as she had a 19-match winning streak and ended the year with 59 victories. Besides winning the U.S Open she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon, however she lost once again in the final of the NASDAQ 100, this time to Svetlana Kuznetsova.
In 2007 she finished in the Top5 for the fourth straight year and briefly returned to No. 1 as she reached the finals at Australian Open and the Tour Championships and won her 16th career Tour singles title at San Diego.
This year started with a bang for Sharapova as she already claimed the first Grand Slam event of the year (2008 Australian Open) and went 2-0 in Russia's 4-1 Fed Cup World Group first-round win over Israel. As of February 14, 2008 she was the fifth-ranked female player in the world.
Birthday: April 19, 1987
Birthplace: Siberia, Russia
Residence: Branderton, Florida, U.S.A
Pro: since 2001
