Maria Sharapova

Tennis Player

Powerful, blonde and over six feet tall, Maria Sharapova was only 17 when she won the prestigious Wimbledon tennis tournament in 2004. Sharapova first turned pro in 2001 at the young age of 14. She and her father had moved from Russia to Florida when she was nine so that Sharapova could study at the tennis academy of Nick Bollettieri. Sharapova steadily worked her way up through the pro ranks, claiming her first WTA victory at the 2003 AIG Japan Open. Meanwhile she took occasional modelling jobs, earning comparisons to Anna Kournikova for what the British paper The Guardian called her "much-admired features." Sharapova stunned the tennis world by defeating defending champion Serena Williams in the singles finals at Wimbledon in 2004. She won her second and third majors by beating Justine Henin-Hardenne at the 2006 U.S. Open and Ana Ivanovic at the 2008 Australian Open.

Extra credit: Sharapova is 6'2" tall, according to her profile from the WTA Tour... Her name is pronounced shah-ra-POH-vuh... Nyagan is part of Siberia, hence her nickname of "the Siberian Siren"... She also has been called "the Queen of Screams" for her habit of grunting loudly while hitting the ball. The Evening Standard claimed to have measured Sharapova's vocalizations at Wimbledon in 2004, and reported that "At its worst, her grunting hit 86.3 decibels - the same as standing beside a high-revving motorcycle, or the screech from a gibbon in the zoo"... Also according to the WTA Tour website, Sharapova "Enjoys reading books in the Sherlock Holmes and Pippi Longstocking series."

Other tennis stars of Sharapova's era: Americans Jennifer Capriati and Venus Williams, Belgian Kim Clijsters and Slovak Daniela Hantuchova.

Maria Sharapova joins models Molly Sims and Petra Nemcova in our loop on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Blog posts mentioning Maria Sharapova:
Grunting News from Australia Sharapova Reads Cell Phone, Wins Open