by Max Gao
It’s been three and a half years since Maria Sharapova retired from skilled tennis, however the five-time Grand Slam champion lately got here face-to-face with some former colleagues throughout an in a single day journey to Toronto.
“I used to be within the lodge with a number of the gamers and bumped into some within the elevator, and so they’re like, ‘What are you doing right here?’ And I’m like, ‘What are you doing right here?!’” Sharapova recalled with amusing. “I didn’t know I used to be going to see so many gamers, so it was good to be again on this environment of seeing the athletes up shut once more.”
Whereas the likes of World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz have been on the town to compete on the 2023 Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers, Sharapova — who reached the ultimate of the ladies’s occasion throughout her return from shoulder surgical procedure in 2009, however admitted that she had struggled through the years to make the journey to Canada after enjoying at Wimbledon — was again in Toronto to talk on the second annual UNMATCHED: Gender Fairness in Sports activities Convention.
“That is such a good way to fulfill folks, work together with folks, hear completely different views, and I’m actually honored [to be here],” Sharapova advised attendees on the Paramount EventSpace in Woodbridge on August 9. “I do know final yr Billie Jean King spoke, and I bought a message from her accomplice, Ilana, final night time: ‘Billie Jean was up on stage.’ And I used to be like, ‘Effectively, thanks a lot. That’s a really powerful act to observe!’”
In a wide-ranging dialog with Jennifer Bishop, a accomplice at Aird & Berlis LLP and government board member at Tennis Canada, Sharapova spoke concerning the endless battle for gender equality in tennis, her transition away from the game, and the way she has been in a position to parlay her on-court success into turning into one of many highest-paid feminine athletes of all time.
A Totally different Form of Area
Sharapova burst onto the scene in 2004 when, as a 17-year-old, she defeated top-seeded Serena Williams to win her maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. Sharapova’s victory not solely shot her to international fame seemingly in a single day but in addition made her some of the marketable athletes of her era, permitting her to ink profitable endorsement offers with manufacturers akin to Nike, Porsche, Evian, Tag Heuer, Cole Haan, Tiffany & Co. and Canon all through her two-decade enjoying profession.
Along with turning into the tenth girl to finish the Profession Grand Slam, she was reportedly the highest-paid feminine athlete for 11 consecutive years, in line with Forbes, and was among the many first tennis gamers to earn the vast majority of her revenue off the courtroom.
“Once I gained success at a younger age, I used to be genuinely shocked by how a lot curiosity there was in my life in each single lane,” mentioned Sharapova, who has now navigated greater than half her life beneath the general public highlight. “I’ve needed to get up for myself many instances. It wasn’t fashionable to be greater than only a tennis participant — to be concerned about vogue, to have your individual line. You’re on this sandbox, and also you’re not allowed to play with the rest. And I really feel like in some methods, I wished to disrupt that. I wished to problem my mind in different methods. I spotted that tennis was a enterprise car for a lot of alternatives. I wasn’t going to be implausible at it, however I could possibly be curious and I might study the way forward for sport and the way forward for enterprise.”
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For the previous World No. 1, balancing the aggressive and enterprise sides of tennis was by no means 50-50. “It’s a must to be okay with the truth that you’re not at all times going to be there for somebody when you’ve got a profession that entails you to be on the street for 10-11 months,” she mentioned. “However in the beginning, I knew the one factor I used to be sturdy at was tennis. So, from the second I awakened, it was the one factor and the one accomplishment I wished to get by and do my greatest at. And when that might end, whether or not I’d simply had one apply, two practices — when that was over, I might concentrate on different issues.”
However that isn’t to say that Sharapova didn’t give her all on the tennis courtroom. Along with her outstanding metal, expertise and drive, the Russian made a reputation for herself as one of many sport’s fiercest opponents, regardless of being plagued with recurring accidents that led to her determination to retire in February 2020.
“Towards the tip of my profession, I attempted very, very exhausting to get my physique again in form and injury-free, and lots of that got here from my stubbornness as a result of I actually believed I might restore my ligaments and my tendons in my shoulder simply if I labored more durable,” Sharapova mentioned with a self-deprecating snicker. “And typically, you need to let go of that stubbornness to ensure that there to be extra stunning issues in your life to open up.”
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Since hanging up her racquet, Sharapova has taken on new challenges. She’s introduced new model partnerships, finished extra talking engagements, and gave delivery to her first baby with the British businessman Alexander Gilkes — a boy named Theodore. Requested about probably the most difficult a part of transitioning from sport, Sharapova mentioned, with out lacking a beat: “Changing into a mom. I gained a wholly new respect for moms and motherhood and giving delivery, of taking good care of this little creature.”
The Battle for Gender Fairness
In 2006, Venus Williams, whom Sharapova describes as “an unimaginable inspiration” who “fought for feminine athletes and females on the whole from a really younger age,” performed a pivotal position within the battle for equal prize cash on the 4 Grand Slams. “Once I was uncovered to that query and the topic, as a youngster, I didn’t actually have a powerful opinion as a result of I wasn’t round that a lot,” Sharapova admitted.
“I didn’t fairly perceive why that was even such a subject, as a result of I might get up within the morning and simply wished to be the perfect model of myself,” she continued. “Finally, regardless that I’ve a deeper appreciation of what it means to be a feminine athlete, I look again at that and suppose, ‘It’s about being the perfect model of your self. It’s not about evaluating myself to another person or a male participant or a match that’s three-out-of-five units. It’s about attempting to be higher and attempting to be a champion.’”
When the subject of equal prize cash is broached in skilled tennis, it’s often mentioned on the massive occasions on the calendar — the Grand Slams, the Masters and WTA 1000 occasions. “And sure, 15-20 p.c of the tour is equal. However the place’s the remainder of the 80 p.c? It’s not even near being equal,” Sharapova defined. “Sadly, these occasions don’t have the most important media rights, they don’t have the visibility, so subsequently, that topic of equality doesn’t even get a platform as a result of not too many individuals know internationally [that] these tournaments exist.”
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Though there was “an incredible, large shift” within the final 5 years, Sharapova feels that the evolving dialog about investing extra in ladies’s sports activities on the whole “has been in direction of extra leagues and groups, media rights and sponsorships, and never essentially the person feminine athletes,” who’re making an attempt to construct manufacturers of their very own throughout their time away from competitors.
“When the main target is on the person, it’s extra about what they’re saying on social change, on psychological well being — and fewer of who they’re as a participant and as an athlete,” Sharapova remarked. “Whenever you take a look at the ability set that these athletes have, the athleticism, the competitiveness — that’s [all] so particular, and I don’t suppose sufficient of that’s being seen and sufficient of that’s being heard.”
Sharapova conceded {that a} return on one’s funding, on the finish of the day, “takes a really, very very long time” — and simply because somebody has loved success in a single area doesn’t routinely imply it’ll translate to different walks of life.
“I educated nearly 12 years on the again courts of various nation golf equipment and public courts and personal courts with a view to get myself to Centre Court docket at Wimbledon,” she mentioned. “As I’m going into a brand new chapter of my life, lots of people — a few of that are my buddies — say, ‘Oh, you’re going to take action nicely. You’re going to be even higher in enterprise.’ And I say, ‘Truly, no. I’m not so positive as a result of it took me over 10 years to develop this ability in a single craft, to be taught the ins and outs, to be taught my method, to get my mentality in place, to really feel like I used to be able to compete with these unimaginable athletes.’ So, in no matter chapter and lane that you simply’re in, it takes time to develop a ability set. It takes time to expertise your feelings, to get by challenges, to beat them after which be taught and have a number of extra setbacks to really feel grown up.”
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Tennis Canada introduced in June that the Nationwide Financial institution Open will provide equal prize cash to men and women beginning in 2027, two years after the match plans to undertake a 12-day main-draw format. Earlier than Sharapova took to the stage on the UNMATCHED press convention, a brief video — wherein some prime ATP Tour gamers declared their help for equal pay — was performed for the viewers. “However as everyone knows, actions are extra highly effective than phrases, so [the male players] must lean in,” Sharapova mentioned with a smile.
In actual fact, the tennis icon had a name to motion for your entire viewers: “When you’re attending a sport — let’s say it’s tennis, it’s the night time session on the U.S. Open — and also you’ve bought the ladies beginning at 7 p.m. and adopted by the boys, you present up at 6:55 and be there for the primary level that they play. Don’t present up midway by their match with a view to watch the boys. Present up for the ladies.”