OVA & OUT Maria says it’s game, set & match after injuries force her to quit
MARIA SHARAPOVA claimed injuries had forced her to face reality after calling time on her controversial career.
The 32-year-old Russian, who burst on to the international scene when she annihilated Serena Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final at just 17, went on to win all four Grand Slams.
But her reputation was left in tatters in 2016 when she failed a drugs test at the Australian Open and was banned for two years, incurring the wrath of the biggest names in tennis.
On the court, Sharapova was a formidable opponent but she cited last August’s US Open, when she lost heavily to Williams in the opening round, as a ‘final signal’ that injuries had caught up with her.
Sharapova started playing at four and showed promise at six at a Moscow tennis clinic run by Martina Navratilova, who recommended her to the IMG Academy in Florida. She was a star in juniors by the age of 13 and remembers only too well how she announced herself to the world four years later in London. She revealed: “Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would win on the sport’s biggest stages. “I was a naive 17-year-old still collecting stamps and didn’t understand the magnitude of my victory until I was older. And I’m glad I didn’t. “You wonder what your first successful moment might look or feel like but you get there and it is very different because it is real.”
Still a teen, she added the US Open two years later, and before her 21st birthday the Australian Open was in the bag as well. She completed the set in 2012 with the French Open title and won her final Slam at Roland Garros again two years later.
But the sports world was stunned when she revealed in March 2016 that she had tested positive for meldonium two months earlier in Melbourne. She was banned for two years, later reduced to 15 months. Sharapova accepted it was a banned substance but that it was doctor-prescribed and that she didn’t realise it was on the banned list.
But tennis greats John Mcenroe and Pat Cash said they found it difficult to believe her, while Roger Federer said at the time: “Whether it’s intentional or not, I don’t see too much difference. You must be 100 per cent sure about what you are taking.”