Tennis is one of the most famous sports in the world. More than 80% of countries have at least one professional tennis players, and some countries like USA and Russia have hundreds of professional players. Among the Russian professional tennis players, the most popular “star” player is Maria Sharapova (21) who was the former number one woman tennis player in the world.
Maria was born in Nyagan, Soviet Union - a really cold and barren place. Nevertheless, she had an unbelievable ability of playing tennis when she was young. So her father, Yuri Sharapov, decided to raise her as a professional tennis player.
