Bollettieri had previously trained players such as Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, and Anna Kournikova. In 1993, at the age of six, Sharapova attended a tennis clinic in Moscow run by Martina Navratilova, who recommended professional training with Nick Bollettieri at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Maria took her first tennis lessons with veteran Russian coach Yuri Yutkin, who was instantly impressed when he saw her play, noting her "exceptional hand-eye coordination". Aleksandr gave Sharapova her first tennis racquet in 1991 when she was four, whereupon she began practicing regularly with her father at a local park. Her father, Yuri, befriended Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny would go on to win two Grand Slam singles titles and become Russia's first world No. She hit her first tennis ball when she was 4 years old. In 1990, when Sharapova was three, the family moved to Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Concerned about the regional effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, they left their homeland shortly before Maria was born. Her parents, Yuri Sharapov and Yelena, are from Gomel, Byelorussian SSR. Maria Sharapova was born on 19 April 1987, in In 2018, she launched a new program to mentor women entrepreneurs. According to Forbes, she has been the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years and earned US$285 million (including prize money) since she turned pro in 2001. In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time and in March 2012 was named one of the " 100 Greatest of All Time" by Tennis Channel. Since February 2007, she has been a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, concerned specifically with the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme. She has appeared in many advertisements, including those for Nike, Prince, and Canon, and has been the face of several fashion houses, most notably Cole Haan. Sharapova has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She returned to the WTA Tour on 26 April 2017 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. On 4 October 2016, the suspension was reduced to 15 months, starting from the date of the failed test, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport found that she had committed "no significant fault" and that she had taken the substance "based on a doctor's recommendation… with good faith belief that it was appropriate and compliant with the relevant rules". On 8 June 2016, she was suspended from playing tennis for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Sharapova failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open, testing positive for meldonium, a substance that had been banned (effective 1 January 2016) by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Although she played under the banner of Russia with the WTA, she has lived in and been a United States permanent resident since 1994. She won 36 titles in total, including the year-end championships in her debut in 2004. She won five major titles - two at the French Open and one each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. 1 for the first time on 22 August 2005 at the age of 18, becoming the first Russian woman to top the singles rankings, and last held the position for a fifth time for four weeks from 11 June 2012 to 8 July 2012. She has been considered as one of the best competitors of her generation. She is also an Olympic medalist, having won silver in women's singles at the 2012 London Olympics. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to achieve the career Grand Slam. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. She competed on the WTA Tour from 2001 to 2020 and was ranked world No. Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ( Мария Юрьевна Шарапова, pronounced ( listen) born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former world No. Right-handed (two-handed backhand), born left-handed
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