Today, April 19, five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova celebrates her 37th birthday. Shortly before the holidays, Maria traveled to Spain with her beloved British millionaire Alex Gilkes.
“We eat (we eat a lot!) and we walk (very little compared to the food). Our route takes us through San Sebastián to rest a little before our birthday. “The La Viña cheesecake alone was worth the jet lag,” Sharapova wrote on social media.
Maria Sharapova is on vacation in Spain before her birthday
Photo: From the personal archive of Maria Sharapova.
Sharapova is happy in every way. She and Gilkes are raising her son Theodore, who will turn two in July. María simply enjoys life after finishing her sports career and cannot deny herself anything.
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Forbes, in one of its latest rankings, estimated Sharapova’s fortune at $220 million. This amount will likely only grow over time as Maria continues to develop her business empire. She plans to open a new brand.
In March, Sharapova attended Paris Fashion Week. She said she takes inspiration from designers in the way they run their businesses. And she wants to follow her example. María is going to found her own company, which is not directly related to the world of fashion, but is related to it and many other areas of life. Sharapova decided not to reveal details yet
“This is just the beginning,” the Russian said of her plans in Paris.
Sharapova invests in many promising startups and collaborates with major brands. Thanks to this, your well-being constantly grows. María regularly participates in economic forums as an expert on how to do business. Sharapova has a much more successful experience, but she also had some that were not entirely successful.
Maria Sharapova with the products of her pastry brand
Photo: Cedric Ribeiro/Getty Images
In early 2012, Sharapova launched her personal candy brand, Sugarpova. The company’s sales in 2017 reached $10-12 million, and a year later, according to some sources, they amounted to $20 million. The products were sold in 22 countries. Everything changed with the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Sweets and other confectionery products are clearly out of fashion. Maria personally participated in marketing campaigns and tried to save the situation, but failed. At the end of 2021, the Sugarpova brand ceased operations. Sharapova doesn’t like to talk about it too much, but she recently opened up about the candy company’s painful closure on Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly’s podcast.
“I was always considered just a tennis player, but I didn’t want to be defined by that. He was good at tennis, but felt that he had much more to offer. As for Sugarpova, he didn’t really have a clear vision. I didn’t really understand what to do with it in 5 to 10 years. But it was an exciting journey and I had a lot of fun in the process,” Maria said.
Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick in 2015
Photo: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images
In the same podcast, Sharapova shared her failed investment experience following the advice of former world number one Andy Roddick. The media wrote that in 2005, Maria and Andy were in a romantic relationship, but they broke up quite quickly. However, the friendship between them remained. That’s why Roddick called Sharapova in the early 2010s and asked her to invest in an app that helped people book hotels. She agreed, but ended up losing a lot of money.
“There was a failed agreement. Andy Roddick called me. I don’t want to blame Andy for anything. But he called me. He said there is an app that is crashing right now. However, at the time it looked promising. Although he alarmed me that there were two different applications, separately for users and for the management of hotels that provide services. He told this to the creator and he responded, “We just can’t do anything else.” Then I said to Andy, “It’s okay, I still believe in you.” I didn’t think there would be any difficulty, but in fact, I invested a lot of money in this app, but never made any profit. This was my first introduction to technology. This must have happened more than 10 years ago,” Sharapova said.
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Only those who do nothing at all fail. Bad investments or closing your own company – for Maria all this is simply valuable experience to avoid making similar mistakes in the future. She definitely won’t despair and quit the business industry.
“I am excited about the opportunity to create and run my own business. Having worked with many CEOs of large companies throughout my tennis career, I have learned a lot and know that I have what it takes to succeed in the business world,” says Maria.
Sharapova admires the world of fashion and how things work in the industry. She respects female designers and studies their business experience. María made it clear that her new venture will be related to this industry, although we are not talking about classic design and launching a clothing line. There is no doubt that Sharapova will take into account her few past mistakes and achieve significant success in her venture.
Maria Sharapova
Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Many tennis fans would like to see Maria return to the court. At 37 years old, this theoretically seems like a possible scenario. Sharapova even gave fans some hope last season, but ultimately made it clear to everyone that she no longer intended to play tennis at the professional level. At the same time, María actively follows her favorite sport and remembers with some nostalgia the moments of her career as a player. This week she will surely focus her attention on the Stuttgart clay court tournament, which was her favorite because, in addition to the prize money, the champion received a Porsche.
“I love watching tennis. I rarely pick up a racket, as much as I’d like to, but that’s because my friends don’t want to play with me. So I have to wait for one of my coaches or sparring partners to come to town and say, “Hey, would you like to book a court and string my racquet?” (Laughs.) And then I have a chance. But otherwise no one wants to play with me, even though I tell them I’m not that good.
My favorite tennis tournament? Stuttgart. I won this tournament three times and there were many difficult matches on difficult surfaces. Each time I raised the trophy and then left in the car (smiles). The game that affected me the most? Wimbledon 2004 final with Serena Williams. She was 17 years old and didn’t even understand what happened to me. But playing in that final was a dream come true. Being on that court, experiencing the history of the event, the city and reflecting on my personal journey is really something special,” Sharapova said in a recent interview with the WTA.
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It is in the business sector where we can expect Maria to be most active in the foreseeable future. You can see her on the court only at exhibition events or during training. It’s sad that some realize this, but Sharapova’s era as a tennis player has passed. However, Maria herself is definitely not upset by this. She will easily find many other paths to self-realization.
