Sharapova returns to the court after suspension

It may sound like the stuff of Hollywood dreams, but the story of Maria Sharapova is a testament to the power of one individual to make it, whatever the odds, whatever the controversy, whatever people think. 

On Wednesday in Stuttgart, the 30-year-old will return from a 15-month doping suspension to open the next chapter. When she takes to the court to face Roberta Vinci, it will be to the consternation of many opponents and the relief, albeit privately, of a women’s tour left flagging by the absence of Serena Williams, probably Sharapova’s only serious rival in the arena-filling business.

Sharapova shot to international fame as a giggly 17- yearold Wimbledon winner in 2004. Siberia-born Sharapova first picked up a racquet at the age of four in Sochi, where her Belarus-born parents had settled after escaping the deadly clutches of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Spotted by Martina Navratilova, she was encouraged to move to Nick Bollettieri’s Florida academy, the proving ground of Andre Agassi and Monica Seles. 

She made her professional debut at 14 in 2001 and by 2003 reached the world top 50. She won her first tour titles in Japan and Quebec. Then in 2004, her Wimbledon final triumph over Williams made her an overnight international celebrity.

One year later, she became the first Russian woman to be ranked number one in the world while, in 2006, she won her second major at the US Open. But in 2007 and 2008, she began her long, on-off battle with shoulder trouble. She still had time to win the 2008 Australian Open before a second shoulder injury kept her off tour for the second half of the season, including missing the US Open and Beijing Olympics. 

A 10-month absence from the sport, as she recuperated from surgery, saw her ranking slip to 126, but she was back in 2012, capturing the French Open to become the 10th woman to complete a career Grand Slam and adding Olympic silver to her resume that year.Her 2014 French Open title was another high after a dispiriting injury low. 

With Williams, she has endured her most testing rivalry -- on and off the court. The two famously exchanged personal insults over their love lives when Sharapova began a two-year romance with Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, a rumoured previous suitor of the American. 

Sharapova had previously been engaged to former Los Angeles Laker star Sasha Vujacic. She may have been unlucky in love, but Sharapova hit the jackpot in her commercial affairs.