Maria Yuryevna Sharapova

sharapova

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova was born in 1987 to Yury and Yelena, ethnic Belarusians, in the town of Nyagan’ in Siberia, Russia.Maria Yuryevna Sharapova parents moved from Gomel, Belarus after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 affected the region. When Sharapova was two, the family moved to Sochi where her father befriended Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny would go on to win two Grand Slam singles titles and became Russia’s first ever World No. 1 tennis player. Aleksandr gave Sharapova her first tennis racket at the age of four, whereupon she began practicing regularly with her father in a local park. Maria Yuryevna Sharapova took her first tennis lessons with veteran Russian coach Yuri Yutkin, who was instantly impressed when he first saw her play, noting her “exceptional hand-eye co-ordination.”