Short answers, pulled from the story.
Maria Sharapova won five Grand Slam singles titles: the 2004 Wimbledon Championships, the 2006 US Open, the 2008 Australian Open, the 2012 French Open, and the 2014 French Open. The 2012 French Open title made her the tenth woman to complete the Career Grand Slam.
Sharapova failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open, testing positive for meldonium, a substance the World Anti-Doping Agency had banned effective the 1st of January 2016. The International Tennis Federation initially imposed a two-year suspension on the 8th of June 2016, which was later reduced to 15 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which found she had committed "no significant fault."
Sharapova first reached world No. 1 on the 22nd of August 2005, at the age of 18. She was the first Russian woman to top the WTA singles rankings.
Sharapova received her first tennis racquet at age four from Aleksandr Kafelnikov while her family was living in Sochi. She began practicing regularly with her father at a local park. In 1993, she attended a clinic run by Martina Navratilova, who recommended training at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Sharapova and her father arrived in the United States in 1994 with savings of $700.
According to Forbes, Sharapova was the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years. She earned $285 million including prize money from the time she turned professional in 2001.
Maria Sharapova was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2025. She retired from professional tennis in 2020 after winning 36 WTA Tour-level singles titles.