Background and career
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (Russian: Мария Юрьевна Шарапова, romanized: Mariya Yuryevna Sharapova, pronounced [mɐˈrʲijə ʂɐˈrapəvə] ; born April 19, 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including five major titles, as well as the 2004 WTA Tour Championships. She is one of ten women to achieve the career Grand Slam in singles.
A teen sensation, Sharapova broke through to the top of the sport by winning the 2004 Wimbledon Championships as a 17-year-old, upsetting two-time defending champion Serena Williams. She then won the 2004 Tour Finals, and became the world No. 1 for the first time in August 2005 at the age of 18, the first Russian woman to top the singles rankings. Continued success over the following years, including titles at the 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open, was accompanied by recurring injuries, and Sharapova dipped in and out of the top 10 around the turn of the decade. After a career-long struggle with success on clay courts, Sharapova claimed the 2012 French Open to complete the career Grand Slam, returning to the No. 1 position, and shortly after won an Olympic silver medal in women's singles at the 2012 London Olympics. She won a second French Open title in 2014 for her fifth major championship.
Sharapova failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open, testing positive for meldonium, a substance that had been banned (effective January 1, 2016) by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). On June 8, 2016, she was suspended from playing tennis for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). On October 4, 2016, the suspension was reduced to 15 months, starting from the date of the failed test, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport found that she had committed "no significant fault" and that she had taken the substance "based on a doctor's recommendation... with good faith belief that it was appropriate and compliant with the relevant rules". She returned to the WTA Tour in April 2017 at the Stuttgart Open. Sharapova retired from the sport in 2020.
Sharapova has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She has appeared in many advertisements, including those for Nike, Prince, and Canon, and has been the face of several fashion houses, most notably Cole Haan. Since February 2007, she has been a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, concerned specifically with the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme. In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time and in March 2012 was named one of the "100 Greatest of All Time" by Tennis Channel. According to Forbes, she was the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years and earned US$285 million (including prize money) since she turned professional in 2001. In 2018, she launched a new program to mentor women entrepreneurs.
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova was born on April 19, 1987, in Nyagan, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Her parents, Yuri Sharapov and Yelena, are from Gomel, Byelorussian SSR. Concerned about the regional effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, they left their hometown shortly before Maria was born.
How Maria Sharapova makes money
According to Forbes, she was the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years and earned US$285 million (including prize money) since she turned professional in 2001. In March 2006, Forbes magazine listed her as the highest-paid female athlete in the world, with annual earnings of over US$18 million, the majority of which was from endorsements and sponsorships.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth, in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
