Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (Russian: Мари́я Ю́рьевна Шара́пова?·i, Mariya Yur’evna Sharapova; born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player. A former World No. 1, she was on November 15, 2008, ranked World No. 9 by the Women's Tennis Association. Sharapova has won three Grand Slam singles titles. In 2004, at the age of 17, she won Wimbledon, defeating Serena Williams in the final. She has since won the 2006 US Open, defeating Justine Henin in the final, and the 2008 Australian Open, defeating Ana Ivanović in the final.Sharapova has represented Russia in Fed Cup, although her appearances have been controversial. She has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in Sports Illustrated. In July 2008, as a result of her success both on and off court, she was the world's highest-paid female athlete.
As of October 2008, she is coached by her father, Yuri Sharapov, and former player Michael Joyce.
Home in Manhattan Beach, California and in early 2008, purchased a penthouse apartment in Netanya, Israel. Sharapova lists fashion, movies, music and reading the Sherlock Holmes and Pippi Longstocking series as among her off-court interests, while she has also talked in the past about how she takes hip-hop dance classes.At the 2004 US Open, Sharapova, along with several other Russian women tennis players, wore a black ribbon in observance of the tragedy after the Beslan school hostage crisis, which took place only several days before. In 2005, she donated around US$50,000 to those affected by the crisis. On February 14, 2007, Sharapova was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and donated US$100,000 to UNDP Chernobyl-recovery projects. She stated at the time that she was planning to travel back to the area after Wimbledon in 2008, though it is unknown whether this happened.
In July 2008, Sharapova sent a message on DVD to the memorial service of Emily Bailes, who had performed the coin toss ahead of the 2004 Wimbledon final that Sharapova had gone on to win.