Maria Sharapova Pořadí knih

In the middle of the night, a father and his daughter step off a Greyhound bus in Florida and head straight to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. They ring the bell, though no one is expecting them and they don't speak English. They have arrived from Russia with just seven hundred dollars and the conviction that this six-year-old girl will be the world's next great tennis star. They are right. This is Maria Sharapova's gripping and fearless autobiography, telling her story from her roots in the small Siberian town her parents had fled to after the Chernobyl disaster, through her arrival in the US and her phenomenal rise to success - winning Wimbledon aged just seventeen - to the disasters that threatened her career and her fight back. Here the five-time Grand Slam winner gives us candid insights into her relationship with her father, who gave up his job and life in Russia to dedicate himself to his daughter; the truth behind her famous rivalry with Serena Williams; the injuries and suspension controversy that threatened to end it all. It's a story of of crazy luck, mistakes, rivalries, sacrifice, survival and, above all, the constant, unwavering determination to win.

Maria Šarapovová, jedna z nejvýraznějších sportovkyň, přináší fascinující a upřímný příběh o svém vzestupu na tenisový vrchol a neustálém boji o udržení se na něm. V roce 2004 šokovala svět vítězstvím ve Wimbledonu nad Serenou Williamsovou, čímž se z ní stala globální senzace. Z anonymity se dostala na mezinárodní scénu a zrodila se „Maria mánie“. Šarapovová se stala jménem známým po celém světě, několikrát dosáhla postu světové jedničky a vyhrála další čtyři grandslamy, čímž se stala jednou z nejlépe placených sportovkyň. Na vrcholu kariéry však čelila nejtěžší výzvě, když byla v roce 2016 obviněna z užití meldonia, zakázané látky. Toto obvinění vedlo k patnáctiměsíčnímu pozastavení činnosti, což bylo pro sportovce obrovskou zkouškou. Její příběh nezačíná vítězstvím, ale v ruském městečku, kde jako pětiletá začínala na opuštěných kurtech. Otec riskoval všechno, aby ji dostal na Floridu, a s pouhými sedmi sty dolary a minimální znalostí angličtiny začali nový život. V knize se poprvé dozvídáme celý příběh jejími vlastními slovy. Šarapovová se vrací na profesionální okruh, a její touha po vítězství, která ji dovedla z ruských kurtů na wimbledonské trávníky, zůstává neochvějná. Tento příběh je oslavou odhodlání a vůle překonávat překážky.

In 2004, in a stunning upset against the two-time defending champion Serena Williams, seventeen-year-old Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon, becoming an overnight sensation. Out of virtual anonymity, she launched herself onto the international stage. "Maria Mania" was born. Her success would last: she went on to hold the number-one WTA ranking multiple times, to win four more Grand Slam tournaments, and to become one of the highest-grossing female athletes in the world. And then -- at perhaps the peak of her career -- she was charged by the ITF with taking the banned substance meldonium, only recently added to the ITF's list. The resulting suspension would keep her off the professional courts for fifteen months -- a frighteningly long time for any athlete. But Sharapova's career has always been driven by her determination and by her dedication to hard work. Her story doesn't begin with the 2004 Wimbledon championship, but years before, in a small Russian town, where as a five-year-old she played on drab neighborhood courts with precocious concentration. It begins when her father, convinced his daughter could be a star, risked everything to get them to Florida, that sacred land of tennis academies. It begins when the two arrived with only seven hundred dollars and knowing only a few words of English. From that, Sharapova scraped together one of the most influential sports careers in history.