Maria
Sharapova is the most dazzling tennis player who has ever stepped on
tennis court.Maria was born April 19, 1987 in Nyagan, a town in
western Siberia, where her parents, Yuri and Yelena, had fled from
Belarus a year earlier to avoid radiation from Chernobyl. Still too
close to the disaster site, her family left their home as refugees
again when she was two-years-old. The Sharapovs settled for a while in
the Black Sea town of Sochi, known then as a resort village and home
of Russian tennis light, Yevgeny Kafelnikov. Yuri had been an engineer
in Nyagan. But as the family bounced from on home to the next, he did
anything he could just to keep them together
An only child, Maria was encouraged by her parents to try everything,
from dancing and music to athletics. She discovered tennis after her
fourth birthday, when a family friend - Kafelnikov’s father gave her
one of his son’s old Dunlop tennis racquets. The die was cast. Maria
hardly ever let that cut-down, cracked, destrung racquet out of her
hand from the moment she picked it up. Every day she hit balls against
the side of the house.
By the time Maria was six, local tennis coaches encouraged Yuri to
take her to Moscow to be considered for the Russian Tennis Federation.
There, she wowed RTF head coach Yuri Udkin, who felt she was the best
tennis player he had ever seen.
But things were not so simple in Russia, where the old order was
changing. The Russian government had increased its tennis development
program after the sport had gained Olympic status in the early 1980s.
But even though ample funding was available, Maria’s parents
followed the advice of Martina Navratilova, who believed that the U.S.
would be the best place for the youngster to receive her training. The
Sharapovs had met Navratilova during an exhibition in Moscow. The
tennis legend was happy to offer her assistance.
Maria emigrated to Bradenton, Florida with her father, but Yelena was
forced to stay behind when she could not get a visa. Once there,
father and daughter tried to get her accepted at the world-famous
Bollettieri Sports Academy. They also learned to speak English, Maria
picking up much of the language in a month's time.
Maria and her dad made the trip from Russia to Florida with a scant
$1,000 in their bankroll, scraped together from their life savings and
gifts from grandparents and friends. Yuri also added to the small nest
egg by laboring in the mines of Siberia. Unsure even where Bradenton
was, they eventually arrived in the Sunshine State amid catcalls from
parents complaining Maria was an outsider, too young and not talented
enough. Bolletieri, however, sensed something special in her. Maria
began her education at his “dream factory”—the same tennis
school that had produced the likes of Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, Mary
Pierce and Jim Courier.
At first, Yuri had to pay for seven-year-old Maria to play at
Bollettieri’s. To foot the bill, he worked at all manner of jobs,
including maintaining the greens at a local golf course. The two grew
even closer during this period. Maria tried to focus on tennis, while
Yuri concentrated on their survival. She began entering 12-and-under
tournaments, and acquitted herself quite well, ascending to #15 in her
age group.
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