Victories, rivalries and grunts: The 28-year legacy of Maria Sharapova

On February 26, Maria Sharapova, former No 1, five-time Grand Slam winner and a global sports star, announced that she was saying goodbye to tennis. The ‘ice queen’ retired after a 28-year-long career that included many titles, losses and even a ban from the sport for drug abuse. Not just an ace

tennis

player, Sharapova was the highest-paid female athlete till 2016 and was also a model and a businesswoman. Sharapova, who put the racket down at the age of 32 when she was ranked No 373, started playing tennis when she was only four. It was in 2004 when she beat

Serena Williams

and won Wimbledon at the age of 17 and shot to global fame. But her downfall began in 2016 when she was suspended for using a performance-enhancing, banned drug. The suspension ended in 15 months but Sharapova could not bring back her original form to the court. Citing recurring problems with her right shoulder, the tennis star in her retirement letter said that her body had “become a distraction”. Since returning to the WTA Tour in the spring of 2017, Sharapova played a total of 73 matches. She had 45 wins. One title and one major quarterfinal. However, her form wasn’t the only talking point in her glorious career.

The on court racket
Sharapova was famously one of the loudest grunters in the game. While some didn’t see a problem with it, others, including her rivals, claimed that it was just a tactic to throw the opponent off their game. One of her rivals even said that Sharapova was “just too loud and annoying”. Over the course of her career, her shrieks have reached up to 101 decibels. A news website said she “crescendos an A6 note as a 27-year-old, which is an octave above a soprano singer”. However, criticism from her rivals hardly ever mattered to Sharapova.“I’ve been the same over the course of my career. No one important enough has told me to change or do something different,” she hit back after being called out for her grunts.
Giving it back to the sexistsThroughout her career – whether it was while talking to the press or calling out authorities – Sharapova didn’t turn a blind eye to the rampant sexism in the tennis world. In January this year, she slammed Brisbane International chiefs after the women players, including Sharapova, were forced off the main court to make room for the men’s inaugural

ATP

Cup. Sharapova said the women’s Brisbane International tournament felt “second hand”. “There’s a lot of girls that are deserving of that centre-court spot. You definitely recognise it and notice it. It feels like a little bit of a second-hand event,” she said. In 2012, when France’s Gilles Simon said that women in tennis didn’t deserve to be paid as much as men because the men’s game is more “attractive”, Sharapova hit back with a simple, “I’m sure there are a few more people that watch my matches than his, so...” And this time, even Serena was on her side.

A career-long feud with Serena Williams
The claws (from both ends) have been out since Sharapova defeated Williams in 2004. Both ladies, on several occasions, have taken digs at each other’s personal and professional lives. In her autobiography, Sharapova wrote that it all started in 2004 when a distraught Williams, after her Wimbledon loss, told a friend (who then told Sharapova) that she would “never lose to that little b**** again”. She even wrote about how Serena hated her for “being the skinny kid who beat her, against all odds, at Wimbledon. I think she hated me for taking something that she believed belonged to her.” As for their off the court rivalry, in 2013, when a reporter assumed that Williams was talking about Sharapova when she called someone boring while referring to their personal life during an interview, Maria told the press, “If she wants to talk about something personal, maybe she should talk about her relationship and her boyfriend that was married and is getting a divorce and has kids.” She was referring to Patrick Mouratoglou, who was at the time coaching Serena. However, the rivalry wasn’t just with Serena. Sharapova was known for isolating herself from the rest of the tennis world. In an interview in 2013, she had said, “I’m not really close to many players. I think just because you’re in the same sport it doesn’t mean that you have to be friends with everyone.”

A sartorial star on the court

Sharapova mostly wore her personalised tennis shoes. Along with her initials/name/signature, the shoes also featured 5 Xs, which represented her five Grand Slam titles

While defending her title at Wimbledon in 2005, the sports star was seen wearing gold-speckled shoes that estimated over US $500