Sharapova, rags to riches to doping shame

From the shadow of Chernobyl's nuclear wasteland to international super-stardom and from penniless arrival in the United States, without a word of English, to a fortune nudging the USD 200 million mark.
It may sound like the stuff of Hollywood dreams, but the story of Maria Sharapova, the world's richest sportswoman, was a testament to the power of one individual to make it, whatever the odds.
However, today, the 29-year-old Russian's rags-to-riches story was seemingly at an end when she was banned for two years for failing a drugs test at January's Australian Open.
Sharapova shot to international fame as a giggly 17-year-old Wimbledon winner in 2004 -- the third youngest player to conquer the All England Club's famous grass courts.

She would go on to win once in Australia and once at the US Open while claiming two titles at the French Open, despite famously likening her movement on Roland Garros's crushed red brick as a "cow on ice."
Siberia-born Sharapova first picked up a racquet at the age of four when she was living 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.
Father Yuri and the seven-year-old Maria left for the US in 1994 with just a borrowed $700 to their names.

"I was living a normal, average, everyday life back in Russia and we had a dream," she recalled.
Yuri took odd jobs like dishwashing to finance his daughter's dreams although visa restrictions meant mother Yelena was back in Russia, separated from her daughter for two years.
When Sharapova was nine, the mighty IMG group spotted her talent, funded the USD 35,000 fees required for the Bollettieri school and the young Maria was on her way.
She made her professional debut at 14 in 2001 and by 2003 she reached the world top 50. She won her first tour titles in Japan and Quebec.

Then in 2004, the tennis world was turned upside down when her Wimbledon final triumph over Serena Williams made her an overnight international celebrity.
One year later, she became the first Russian woman to be ranked at 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 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.