Maria Sharapova announces retirement from tennis
2006 US Open champion Maria Sharapova has announced her immediate retirement from professional tennis, closing the book on a competitive career that spanned nearly two decades.
The 32-year-old Russian, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, penned her farewell to the sport in an exclusive, first-person article online in Vanity Fair and Vogue that was published on Wednesday.
“After 28 years and five Grand Slam titles… I’m ready to scale another mountain—to compete on a different type of terrain,” Sharapova wrote.
“How do you leave behind the only life you’ve ever known? How do you walk away from the courts you’ve trained on since you were a little girl, the game that you love—one which brought you untold tears and unspeakable joys—a sport where you found a family, along with fans who rallied behind you for more than 28 years?
“Tennis—I’m saying goodbye.”
Sharapova, who was born in Russia but honed her game on the courts of Nick Bollettieri’s famed tennis academy in Florida, made her pro debut in 2001 at the age of 14, and won her first WTA title two years later.
However, it was in 2004 when she first launched herself towards international stardom by beating Serena Williams to win Wimbledon at age 17, kickstarting a career at the elite levels of tennis which spanned the better part of the next two decades.
What followed were a US Open trophy in 2006, an Australian Open trophy in 2008, and two French Open titles in 2012 and 2014—the first of which earned her the distinction of becoming the 10th woman to complete the career Grand Slam all-time.
In between, Sharapova had several hiatuses from the sport: she underwent a pair of shoulder surgeries, first in 2008 and then again in 2019, and served a 15-month suspension after testing positive at the 2016 Australian Open for meldonium, a prohibited substance, before returning in 2017.
In all, Sharapova won 36 WTA titles and held the world No. 1 ranking for 21 weeks. She helped Russia win the Fed Cup in 2008, and earned a silver medal for her country at the 2012 London Olympics—where she served as flag bearer for the opening ceremonies.
Sharapova, who candidly referenced her injury struggles as playing a part in her career’s end in the letter, played her final professional match in a first-round defeat to Croatia’s Donna Vekic at last month’s Australian Open.
“In giving my life to tennis, tennis gave me a life. I’ll miss it everyday. I’ll miss the training and my daily routine: waking up at dawn, lacing my left shoe before my right, and closing the court’s gate before I hit my first ball of the day,” she wrote.
“I’ll miss my team, my coaches. I’ll miss the moments sitting with my father on the practice court bench. The handshakes—win or lose—and the athletes, whether they knew it or not, who pushed me to be my best.
“Tennis showed me the world—and it showed me what I was made of. It’s how I tested myself and how I measured my growth. And so in whatever I might choose for my next chapter, my next mountain, I’ll still be pushing. I’ll still be climbing. I’ll still be growing.”
