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Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova has announced her retirement. "Tennis -- I'm saying goodbye," she wrote in an essay that appeared Wednesday in Vogue and Vanity Fair. Sharapova turned pro in 2001 at age 14. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the US Open in 2006, the Australian Open in 2008 and the French Open in 2012 and 2014. She is one of only six women in the professional era to win each major tennis title at least once. She made 10 Grand Slam finals in all, going 5-5. For a while, Sharapova was as big a star as her...

She has been the best-paid female athlete in the world for 11 years, earning more off the tennis court than on it. Not any more. Maria Sharapova, 28, could now become the biggest financial loser in sporting history, missing out on estimated future earnings of as much as £100million ($142million). Her biggest sponsors Nike, Porsche, and TAG Heuer all moved to cut ties with the Russian tennis star after she failed a drug test. Sportswear giant Nike last night said it was putting its relationship with the five times Grand Slam winner on hold and was ‘saddened and surprised’ by...

Maria Sharapova's sponsors are quickly distancing themselves from the tennis star after after she said she tested positive for the recently banned drug meldonium. Nike was first to suspend its deal with the Russian athlete. That deal was worth at least $12.5 million a year, her most lucrative contract. UK-based sports marketing and sponsorship consultant Nigel Currie told Business Insider the deal was worth an estimated $100 million over eight years — Nike's biggest deal for a female athlete. There were most likely bonuses tied into the deal too, though no details on these have been published. Sharapova is the...

Twitter and Facebook users were outraged as the news of Maria Sharapova not knowing Indian cricket’s master blaster Sachin Tendulkar went viral. The Russian lawn tennis ace found herself in the eye of a social media storm over her saying she doesn't know who Tendulkar is to tennisworldusa.org website. The website after an interview with Sharapova said, “Sachin Tendulkar may be the greatest cricket batsman in history and one of the legends on the sporting world. But French Open champion Maria Sharapova admitted that she did not know who he was during her press conference at Wimbledon on Saturday.” Sharapova...

Maria Sharapova, the poster child (sometimes literally) for today's Russia, appears to have jumped the rails even as her country does the same. While Vladimir Putin is provoking a new cold war over Snowden and Syria, Sharapova is doing her best to match him stride for stride on and off the tennis court. There seems to be something about some Eastern European players who, like Sharapova, leave their countries for greener pastures, something that lingers under the surface and is disturbingly malevolent. Call it guilt complex, inferiority complex, or what have you, it makes for some dramatic events. In over...

Tennis star Maria Sharapova has reportedly set in motion a plan to change her last name to Sugarpova for the duration of the U.S. Open. The Russian opened a candy company by that name and is said to have sunk half a million dollars into it. According to several reports, Sharapova has approached the Florida Supreme Court about the possibility of changing her name.

Russian-born tennis superstar Maria Sharapova has just inked a three-year deal with Porsche to be its brand ambassador, a position that will put her on a global campaign for the German automaker. The 26-year-old athlete isn't new to the role – she previously signed a similar three-year deal with Land Rover in 2006. "Maria Sharapova is an exceptional athlete. She combines top performance in her sports with elegance and power. These are precisely the qualities that are embroiled in our sports cars," explained Matthias Mueller, CEO of Porsche AG, during the announcement. "Her profile and charisma are an ideal fit...

The most eligible bachelorette in tennis is off the market. Three-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova got engaged to her boyfriend, Los Angeles Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic, after he proposed on Tuesday night at his Manhattan Beach, Calif. home. The two had been dating for nearly a year. TMZ was the first to report the news. Sharapova's agent has since confirmed it to CNBC's Darren Rovell.

NEW YORK: Former world number one Maria Sharapova was ousted in the third round of the US Open on Saturday, with US teen giant-killer Melanie Oudin eliminating the three-time Grand Slam champion 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Oudin, two weeks shy of her 18th birthday, will play for a berth in the quarter-finals against Russian 13th seed Nadia Petrova after her third upset of a top player in two Grand Slams. "I'm just so happy," the tearful teen said. "I just kept fighting as hard as I could. I tried as hard as I could. I just came in believing." The magical...

The grunt stops here: Tennis officials plan crackdown on noisy players By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 6:02 PM on 14th June 2009 A loud grunt as a ball is served down the court has almost become as part of the Wimbledon fabric as strawberries and cream. But that could all be about to change as tennis officials are considering a ban emitting too much noise. As it stands players can have a point awarded against them if the umpire feels they have hindered an opponent. Russia's Maria Sharapova However new proposals to make noise hindrance part of the...

<p>A 9-year-old tennis player who grunts like her idol, Maria Sharapova, when she's playing has been kicked out of a tennis club in Australia.</p> <p>"It's pretty slight and now and again she hits it hard and makes a loud noise and that's it," he said.</p>

Sharapova, Ivanovic move into Australian Open women's final 3 hours ago MELBOURNE, Australia - A year after losing the Australian Open final in embarrassing fashion to American Serena Williams, Russian Maria Sharapova is looking unstoppable in her quest for a third Grand Slam singles title. But if it doesn't happen in Saturday's final at Melbourne Park against Serbia's Ana Ivanovic, she won't lose too much sleep over it. "From the beginning of the tournament, you want to go a step further than you've done in the past," Sharapova said after her 6-3, 6-1 semifinal win over Jelena Jankovic on Thursday....

Maria Sharapova, the queen of scream IF you thought Maria Sharapova's shrieking was over the top, you're right. The tennis glamazon makes almost as much noise as a power drill every time she hits the ball. The Herald Sun asked an Environment Protection Authority officer to measure the raucous Russian with a decibel counter during her match against Lindsay Davenport, the quiet American. The results proved what was painfully apparent to opponents and fans. Her loudest shriek was 71.5dB -- louder than a vacuum cleaner (70dB) and approaching the level of a power drill (80dB). And that was from a...

MELBOURNE, Australia - It was a thumbs-up dripping with irony. Soaked with sweat, and delusional by her own admission, top-seeded Maria Sharapova had come within two points of a first-round exit at the Australian Open. When it was announced the roof would be closed over Rod Laver Arena after her match, Sharapova clapped her hands above her head and raised her right thumb to applaud the decision. Asked after her 6-3, 4-6, 9-7 win Tuesday over Camille Pin if it was hot enough, Sharapova replied: "You're not kidding." "It's inhumanly possible to play three hours in that kind of heat,"...

It was a sensational victory for Maria Sharapova, gifted with beauty and talent, in the recently concluded U.S. Open tennis championship. It’s amazing how the 19-year-old tennis star demolished the defending champion and world #1 woman player Amelie Mauresmo with a lopsided 6-0, 4-6, 6-0 score. Was Amelie distracted by her opponent’s beauty or was her focus not on the ball but on something else? * * * What’s inspiring with Sharapova is that even at the crest of success, she hasn’t forgotten to recognize the role of God in her life. Listen to her "homily" about succeeding enunciated days...

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NEW YORK - Maria Sharapova began the U.S. Open with as much buzz about her sponsorships as her strokes, as much talk about her getups as her game. She's long insisted she's more about substance than style, though, and now she owns a second Grand Slam title to prove it. Better on the biggest points all night, the third-seeded Sharapova beat No. 2 Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-4, 6-4 in the U.S. Open final Saturday to add a follow-up championship to her breakthrough title at Wimbledon in 2004. "I experienced it two years ago, and I knew that I wasn't done," Sharapova...

Maria Sharapova won in style Wednesday at the U.S. Open. Literally. But is the focus on glam wrecking the women's game?

LONDON — The streaker who interrupted Maria Sharapova during her quarter-final Wimbledon win over Elena Dementieva was a Dutchman acting on a dare, officials said. Police have named the nude male intruder as Dutch disc jockey Sander Lantinga, 29, who was pulling off a stunt for a television program, British media reported. The streaker, nude from the waist up while sitting just a few rows away form the court, jumped onto the grass in the second set, ripping open a pair velcro clasps on his pants. He then managed to run around on the court and perform a handstand wearing...

LONDON (AFP) - Maria Sharapova turned the spotlight on to a lapse in Wimbledon security after her quarter-final win was interrupted by a streaker who performed a hand-stand in front of the Royal Box. The appearance of a naked young man mid-way through the second set of the Russian's match against compatriot Elena Dementieva was the biggest surprise on a day in which the top four women's seeds -- Amelie Mauresmo, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Sharapova -- booked their semi-final spots. Sharapova said she had never felt alarmed but admitted she had been surprised by how long he had...