CNN
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5-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapovintroduced her retirement from tennis in a column she wrote for Vogue and Vainness Truthful.
The Russian retires on the age of 32 after final profitable a Grand Slam in 2014, when she captured the French Open for the second time.
Her final look was on the 2020 Australian Open, the place she was eradicated within the first spherical by Donna Vekić.
In her article, Sharapova mentioned she was “saying goodbye” to tennis.
“By giving my life to tennis, tennis gave me a life,” Sharapova he wrote.
“I’ll miss it day by day. I’ll miss coaching and my every day routine: waking up within the morning, placing my left shoe in entrance of my proper and shutting the court docket door earlier than I hit my first ball of the day. I’ll miss my crew, to my coaches. I will miss the moments sitting on the apply bench with my dad. The handshakes — win or lose — and the athletes, whether or not I knew it or not, pushed me to be my greatest.”
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Maria Sharapova’s tennis profession in photos
Rivalry and pushback
Sharapova moved to Florida, United States, aged simply seven in 1994 to obtain skilled coaching.
She burst onto the tennis scene as a 17-year-old in 2004 when she beat No. 1 seed Serena Williams within the Wimbledon ultimate to assert her first grand slam.
She reached the highest of the world rankings for the primary time in 2005 and, alongside along with her Wimbledon title, received two French Open titles, one Australian Open and one US Open.
Sharapova has additionally misplaced to rival Williams in three different Grand Slam finals.
In 2016, he examined optimistic for meldonium, a banned substance, on the Australian Open. She was initially banned for 2 years, earlier than the ban was lowered to fifteen months following an enchantment. Returning to motion in April of the next yr, he has since been unable to succeed in the heights for the reason that begin of his profession.
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![Maria Sharapova blew a kiss to the crowd at Roland Garros in 2018.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/200226132452-sharapova-kiss.jpg?q=x_4,y_218,h_2452,w_4358,c_crop)
“My physique has change into a distraction”
Sharapova has additionally collected greater than $38 million in prize cash in her profession, in line with a WTA website.
“Wanting again now, I notice that tennis was my mountain,” he mentioned. “My path was stuffed with valleys and detours, however the views from the highest have been unbelievable.
“Nonetheless, after 28 years and 5 Grand Slam titles, I’m able to climb one other mountain, to compete on a special sort of terrain.”
He spent 5 completely different intervals on the prime of the world rankings, in addition to receiving numerous extremely paid endorsements from manufacturers comparable to Nike.
After returning to the highest in 2012, Sharapova made her Olympic debut in London the place she completed with the silver medal, dropping within the ultimate to Williams.
Off the court docket, Sharapova was busy constructing a enterprise empire, beginning a sweet manufacturing firm, Sugarpova, in addition to co-owning Supergoop, a sunscreen firm.
Nonetheless, accidents took their toll on the Russian. He has suffered a number of shoulder accidents and, earlier than final yr’s US Open, acknowledged that the tip of his profession may very well be close to.
“Behind closed doorways, thirty minutes earlier than happening court docket, I had a process to numb my shoulder to get by way of the match,” Sharapova, now ranked 373 on the earth, wrote in her farewell article.
“Shoulder accidents are nothing new to me – over time, my tendons have frayed like a rope.
“I had a number of surgical procedures, as soon as in 2008; one other process final yr – and spent numerous months in bodily remedy. Simply getting on the observe that day felt like a ultimate victory, when in fact it ought to have been simply step one to victory. I share this to not pity, however to color my new actuality: my physique has change into a distraction.
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![Sharapova serves against Vekic at the Australian Open.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/200127031936-08-what-a-shot-0127.jpg?q=x_0,y_100,h_1125,w_1999,c_crop)
“All through my profession, is it value it? has by no means been a query; in the long run, it all the time has been. My psychological power has all the time been my strongest weapon. Even when my opponent is bodily stronger, safer, even higher , I may persevere and I did.”
Rival Petra Kvitova, who beat Sharapova within the 2011 Wimbledon ultimate, hailed the Russian as a “nice champion”.
“I understand how laborious it’s to play once more,” she mentioned on Twitter. “He acquired injured quite a bit. In fact he most likely needed extra success than he really paid for or his physique allowed him to have.
“It was a pleasure to be along with her on tour, sharing the court docket along with her. It was all the time nice battles once we performed collectively. So it was all the time good to share the court docket along with her and I all the time have respect for her.”