First published 2017
Maria Sharapova opens her autobiography in the middle of a Florida night, stepping off a Greyhound bus with her father. They carry $700 and speak no English. At six years old, she has left Russia behind for the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Her rise comes fast and spectacular. She claims Wimbledon at seventeen and reaches the world's top ranking at eighteen. Five Grand Slam titles follow, along with fame that extends into fashion and business. Then a positive drug test changes everything. Sponsors abandon her. Fans turn hostile. Tennis officials impose a two-year ban. Even after successfully appealing the sentence, she must fight to reclaim her position on the court and in public opinion. Sharapova tells her story with the same intensity she brought to tennis. She moves from her early years in Siberia through the doping controversy that threatened to end her career. This memoir captures the determination that drove a small girl to become one of the world's highest-paid athletes.
Genres: biography, autobiography, sports, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, intimate
Tropes: rags-to-riches, redemption
Setting: Russia, Florida, Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy
Period: 21st-century
304 pages · Hardcover · Sarah Crichton Books