IN the 2000s, tennis legend Maria Sharapova dominated the women’s game and was a marketer’s dream.
Her talent landed five Grand Slam titles, including triumphing at The Australian Open in 2008 aged just 21.
On top of her game, Nike, Evian, Porsche and Tag Heuer offered the now 37-year-old huge sponsorship deals.
While glam cover photoshoots with fashion magazines made her the definitive face off the court.
At the age of 32 she hung up her racket, after serving a 15-month drug ban.
Although that may have tainted her playing career, since retirement she has become an extraordinary mentor for women business owners.
Her sweet company Sugarpova, which she invested around £400,000 11 years ago, is now worth a staggering £150million. Annually, it clears £16million.
Here’s her journey from world’s sexiest tennis star to global business innovator.
It began in Sochi
Summer beach resort Sochi, found on the Black Sea, has become synonymous with the sporting world.
It was famously home to the successful 2014 Winter Olympics.
But it was also where a young Sharapova dreamed of tennis success. She was just three when she moved there with her mother, Jelena and father, Yuri.
By the age of four, the ambitious kid was already interested in playing tennis and was gifted a racket by Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny would go on to win two Grand Slam singles titles and become Russia’s first world No1.
She was given lessons by her first mentor, Yuri Yutkin until fate sent her to the US.
It was at a tennis clinic run by Martina Navratilova in Moscow where she would shine and be given the opportunity to leave the communist country behind and move to Florida to train with Nick Bollettieri at the IMG Academy. Andre Agassi, Monica Seles and Anna Kournikova were past alumni.
With just $700 (£563) savings, and without a word of English to fall back on, Yuri and Maria emigrated to the US in 1994 – due to visa restrictions, Yelena joined two years later.
Success breeds fame
Aged just 17, Sharapova earned worldwide fame beating defending champion and top seed Serena Williams in the final at Wimbledon.
By 2005, she was world No1 and followed that up with her second Grand Slam title – the US Open a year later.
Maria would add three more Grand Slams to her CV, the Australia Open in 2008 and French Open in 2012 and 2014.
On the court, she gained notoriety for having the loudest grunt in tennis.
Her ear-splitting shrieking and screaming during points was so loud it was recorded at more than 100 decibels.
She would amass $38,777,962 in career earnings, the fourth highest of all-time, and 36 career titles.
Away from the sport, her beauty would score her an endorsement deal with cosmetics giants Avon.
New York Fashion Week became her second home, as she was seen attending Vera Wang and Ralph Lauren’s events. At the Met Gala in New York she sparkled.
Swiss watch brand Tag Heuer made her a global ambassador for their brand.
While she was spotted driving Porsche, another exclusive and luxurious sponsor.
All those would push her personal net worth to well over the £300m mark.
However, scandal would see her lose over a year in the game.
Drugs ban
At the 2016 Australian Open, Sharapova tested positive for meldonium, which had been classified as a banned substance a few weeks earlier.
Ignorance of the new Wada rules was no excuse and she ended up serving a 15-month drugs ban.
She said in a statement at the time: “I received a letter from the ITF that I failed a drugs test at the Australian Open. I take full responsibility for it.
“For the past 10 years I have been given a medicine called mildronate by my family doctor and a few days ago after I received the ITF letter I found out that it also has another name of meldonium which I did not know.
“It is very important for you to understand that for 10 years this medicine was not on Wada’s banned list and I had legally been taking the medicine for the past 10 years.
“But on January 1st the rules had changed and meldonium became a prohibited substance which I had not known.”