Maria Sharapova was just 18 when she was first dubbed world tennis number one.
In February 2020, she called time on her career after reaching that title five times, winning five Grand Slams, 36 titles, and being named the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years.
Aged 33, Sharapova said it’s time to say goodbye to the sport that "showed me the world," telling Vanity Fair she is ready to "scale another mountain, to compete on a different type of terrain."
But the tennis great’s career hasn’t just been about trophies and titles – long dubbed the "ice queen" by the world’s media – a drug scandal in 2016 saw the Russian champion’s career buckle, and since then she’s struggled to reach the same dizzying heights she once dominated.
Watch: Maria Sharapova on the loneliness of sport. Post continues below
A "lonely" childhood.
Four-year-old Maria Sharapova loved to play tennis.
Born in Russia in 1987, Maria and her father Yuri fled a tumultuous post-Soviet Russia for Florida after her parents were told of her potential in the sport, and were recommended she train abroad.