Sixth Picture:
\"Yuri and Maria went living in Venice, a few miles away from Bradenton. To mantain himself and Maria Yuri had to start working, two or three works at a time. There weren't tie and jacket work, there were hard works also because you don't give easily a work to a russian just arrived in America. These were two difficult years, also because dad-coach had to find time to train Maria. But it wasn't only hard times for the Sharapov; Maria was winning a lot of tournaments and this let her win scholarship for the Bollettieri academy in 1995. Students dormitory are just beyond the entrance, after the parking. Maria lived there for seven months, away from his father who stayed with her every hour of her life: now she can hug him only in the week-end. These were seven months who lasted three times more for Maria: she wasn't speaking english very well and she was very young and this made her the favourite object of other students jokes.
In June 1996 another positive turning point: with a brand new visa even mom Yelena could jump on a plain and reach husband and daughter in Florida. Our three heroes were finally in the same city and this let leave our nine years old Maria the academy dormitory for a house with mom and dad.
Century change and change millennium. It's the 2001, 13 miles southern than Bradenton, Maria entered for the first time in an ITF draw, the Sarasota one. She loses in the first round in three sets from Karin Miller but her personality and her play let everyone know that Bollettieri accademy would probably have bring out another champion.
In 2002 Maria has a wild card for the Indian Wells tournament. Maria plays against a qualifier, Brie Rippner, number 302 in the wta ranking. She beats her. In the second round she finds a tennis legend, Monica Seles. Even if Monica wasn't playing the best tennis, she easily beat the young kid 6-2 6-0. Maria learned a lot from this loss. In the next three weeks Maria plays three ITF tournaments. She wins all of them. She closes 2002 with two more finals played and with a 186 ranking.
2003 opens with a couple of unlucky first rounds but also with her debut in two Grand Slams tournaments. She enters the main draw in Melbourne and in Paris but she loses in the first round. The Birmingham tournament is decisive. She enters the main draw, she beats Dechy and Dementieva. She loses in the semi from Asagoe but this let her gain 30 places in the ranking and convince everyone in Church Road to reserve her a wild card. In the fourth round only Svetlana Kuznetsova ruins her party in Wimbledon. But in 2004 nobody, not even Serena Williams could stop her to be the third youngest player to win the Venus Rosewater Dish.
The rest is nowadays history, tennis history. Maria has just turned twenty, she won 15 titles with two Grand Slams victory: at the famous Wimbledon she had infact added also the 2006 US Open.\"
RED BOX
\"THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARIA
0,006 are the seconds who need Google to find almost 2.000.000 results for the \"Maria Sharapova\" search.
9.165.852 are the dollars that Masha gained only with the prize money in her young career.
15 are the titles she won.
245 are her career victory.
59 are her losses in the 304 match she played.
80,59 is her percentage win in career.
10.916 are the km that separetes Nyagan from Bradenton.
126 are the \"grunts\" during a match at the Australian Open.
10 are the multinationals that have chosen Maria as a testimonial (Nike, Prince, Gatorade, Motorola, Canon, Tag Heuer, Land Rover, Colgate, Samantha Tavasa and Speedminton).
19,2 are the million of dollars that she earns every year.\"
