First Russian To Win Wimbledon
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The first Russian to win Wimbledon is Maria Sharapova. She won the Wimbledon singles title in 2004 and became the third youngest woman to do so in the history of the championship. She stunned the reigning champion Serena Williams 6-1, 6-4 in the finals. |
Today Maria Sharapova is big name and her name is found practically in all newspapers and magazine. In addition, the 6-foot Sharapova, is beautiful, with powerful ground strokes and aggressive demeanor on court. However, it was not easy for her to get where she is now. She had to face a lot of problems as a child to attain the stardom and fame.
Maria Sharapova, the first Russian to win Wimbledon, was born in Nyagon, Siberia, on April 19, 1987. Her father’s name is Yuri and her mother is called Yelena. Maria’s parents did not force her into tennis; instead she has always been self-motivated to play and win. In 1989, the Sharapov family moved Sochi, a Black Sea resort, to escape the radioactive fallout from Chernobyl. There Maria met Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a Russian tennis star, who gifted a tennis racket to her. Maria was aged 4 then. When she was 5 years old, she played her first exhibition tournament in Moscow and was spotted by the tennis legend Martina Navratilova. Seeing immense potential in Maria, Martina advised the father to take Maria to Nick Bollettieri’s tennis academy in the United States. Maria travelled to the United States along with her father in 1995 and one of Bollettieri’s coaches agreed to coach her and taught her the various nuances of the game.
For 8-year old Maria, life was not easy in the United States. She stayed without her mother for 2 years and hardly saw her father for one year. She lived in a dormitory and that must have frightening for her, especially since she was in a foreign country. She became a professional tennis player in 2001.
However, all Maria Sharapova’s sacrifices paid off and today she is in the top 3 women players in the world, having recently lost the semi-final game of the French Open to Ana Ivanovic and thus losing her number one ranking in the world.
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First Russian To Win Wimbledon
