The golden girl in the tennis world
As the daughter of tennis enthusiasts Jelena and Yuri, Sharapova was exposed to tennis at the age of 3. A year later, she was given her first racket by former world No. 1 tennis player and compatriot Aleksandr Kafelnikov. From now on, Sharapova really fell in love with tennis and her parents also determined to let their daughter play tennis professionally. They hired Yuri Yutkin to tutor Sharapova, then immigrated to America to help her realize her dream of becoming a star in the tennis industry.
In 1994, even though Yuri’s father could barely speak English, he still boldly went with Sharapova to the country of chess to look for opportunities. At that time, he only had savings of only 700 USD. Due to visa problems, it was not until 2 years later that Ms. Jelena was able to leave Russia to reunite with her family.
It can be said that Kafelnikov’s parents accepted the risk to invest “all in” for their daughter. It’s great that their faith has finally been rewarded. Joining the IMG academy in Florida, Sharapova worked with famous coach Nick Bollettieri. This is the person who mentored famous tennis players like Andre Agassi, Monica Seles or Anna Kournikova, another “Russian doll” who is equally attractive as Sharapova.
Thanks to her inherent talent and being trained by a “cool” coach like Bollettieri, Sharapova quickly revealed her talent. At just 17 years old, she made a strong impression when she brilliantly defeated Serena William 6–1, 6–4 in the 2004 Wimbledon final.
By 2005, Sharapova rose to number 1 in the world. After conquering the 2006 US Open, she also won three more noble Grand Slam titles: French Open (2012, 2014) and Australian Open (2008). Thus, Sharapova has won in all countries that organize Grand Slam tournaments.
Money printing machine
With such a remarkable track record, it is not surprising that the loudest player in tennis (Sharapova’s scream was measured at a maximum level of more than 100 decibels) earns a lot of prize money. According to The Sun, from the time she played professionally until her retirement, Sharapova accumulated over 38 million USD, exactly 38,777,962 USD.
She conquered 36 major and small titles and ranked 4th in the list of tennis players receiving the most prize money. Not only excellent at playing sports, Sharapova is also very good at making money in other fields.
With her natural beauty, Sharapova easily earns extremely attractive advertising contracts. She is the image ambassador of the giant cosmetics company Avon, and regularly attends fashion events organized by Vera Wang or Ralph Lauren at the Met Gala, New York.
In addition, Swiss watch brand Tag Heuer also asked Sharapova to promote its products. In addition, Porsche also sponsored transportation for Sharapova to create attraction thanks to the reputation of its partner.
Although she was also caught up in a scandal when she was discovered to be using stimulants, that did not mean that Sharapova was in financial trouble. On the contrary, this tennis player who retired at the age of 32 in 2020 knows how to increase his wealth at a breakneck speed. Instead of just comfortably “burning money” by enjoying the high life, Sharapova is always busy running the thriving Sugarpova company. In 2013, Sugarpova, at the age of 25, invested $500,000 in her own candy brand.
Now, Sugarpova’s market capitalization has reached 185 million USD. Financial reports show that this company earns nearly 20 million USD each year from selling high-end sweets and chocolate to customers in 22 countries around the world.
With such business talent, in 2018 Sharapova was admitted to the national women’s business association NAWBO. She happily accepted to be an advisor to the members and truly deserves to be an example for everyone in NAWBO to learn from.
