Maria Sharapova Wearing KC Designs Jewelry

Maria Sharapova has reached an impressive level of accomplishment as a tennis player at a relatively young age. This Russian tennis player is currently ranked at number 3 in the world, as of February 2013. She was born in 1987 in Nyahan, Russia and she began playing tennis at a very early age, becoming a professional player at the age of 14. She moved to the USA at the age of seven and she lives there now between her residences in Manhattan Beach, California and Bradenton, Florida.

She has won several titles throughout her career, including a Grand Slam, Tier I Event, WTA Championships and seven titles in the WTA tour championships. Maria Sharapova made her big professional break in 2004 at the age of 17, when she played against defending superstar tennis champion Serena Williams at the 2004 Wimbledon final. She won the game and claimed her first Grand Slam singles title. The win helped her to enter the top 10 of the WTA rankings and she went on to enjoy further wins at the 2006 US Open and the 2008 Australian Open.

Maria Sharapova in KC Designs Diamond Block Initial NecklaceA shoulder injury kept her out of the game for 10 months, which required surgery in October of 2008. She came back to tennis in May 2009 and returned to the top, capturing a fourth Grand Slam title at the 2012 French Open. She is the 6th woman to have ever completed the ‘Career Grand Slam’ which is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline. In the same year, she also achieved a Silver Medal in the London Olympics.

When she is off the court, her beauty and her charming appeal have led to her being featured in many major commercial endorsements with Tiffany & Co and Nike. She has also appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and has been featured in several advertisements. She also acted in the film Pearl Harbor in 2001. Sharapova also launched her own clothing line of tennis apparel with Nike, which was called the ‘Nike Maria Sharapova Collection’ and was released in 2010. She wanted to create her own unique designs of tennis clothing because she found that other dresses did not suit her frame and she wanted something that was different from what the other players were wearing.

According to the Forbes list of Richest Young Celebrities in 2006, Maria Sharapova was the highest earning female athlete of the year. It is reported that she earned $18.2 million in 2005. In March 2012 she was named one of the “100 Greatest of All Time” by Tennis Channel.

This year, Maria was scheduled to compete at the Brisbane International but she had to withdraw because of an injury to her collarbone. She started the season at the Australian Open and she seeded second. While she was there, she broke the record set by Monica Seles for the fewest games to ever be dropped while heading into a Grand Slam semi-final. The next tournament that she competes in will be the Qatar Total Open. 

Maria Sharapova is pictured here wearing the Diamond Block Initial by KC Designs.