Sharapova reveals her Mount Rushmore of women’s tennis icons

Maria Sharapova’s impact on tennis is clear, with a career that ranks her among the legends of the WTA Tour.

Over her career, Sharapova won five Grand Slam titles and appeared in five more finals.

She also completed the rare feat of winning all four majors at least once, lifting trophies at Wimbledon, the US Open, Australian Open, and French Open – which she won twice.

When asked to pick her Mount Rushmore of women’s tennis players in 2022 by Sports Illustrated, Sharapova gave an interesting insight into who inspired her during her own rise.

Maria Sharapova picks her Mount Rushmore of women’s tennis players

Sharapova began her Mount Rushmore selection by naming Serena Williams, who fittingly inducted the Russian into the Hall of Fame last year.

The Russian legend defeated Williams to win her first Grand Slam title, beating the American 6-1, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final back in 2004.

Serena Williams

Sharapova said: “I’m going to go with the obvious choice, Serena Williams. So I had a front row seat to Serena’s greatness.

“Starting at the very beginning, where she kicked my a– and starting and finishing at the very end, where she kicked my a– many more times.

“We all know the stats, right? We all know the numbers of majors. But being across the net… first of all, her accuracy on the serve is the greatest. She has the greatest serve of anyone.

“That’s the thing, is that it’s not powerful, her toss is in the same place every single time. Usually with players on break point, they’re a little nervous, there will be hints of where they’re going to serve. Same place every time.

“And it’s not even about power, because after like 110 miles an hour in women’s tennis, if it’s 120 it doesn’t matter, but it is so accurately placed, on the biggest of points.

“And that is the biggest difference. It’s all about the little margins. And you feel it. When you play against her, first point of every set she’s serving wide.

“I think she kind of gets in the rhythm, but it doesn’t matter because the serve is so good even though you know it’s going there; it doesn’t matter. I got to experience that greatness every single time.”

Steffi Graf

The German star won an astonishing 22 Grand Slam titles between 1987 and 1999 and remains one of only three players in history to have achieved a Golden Slam — holding all four major titles as well as Olympic gold — which she did in 1988.

Monica Seles

Sharapova went on to say: “Number two, I’m going to say Monica Seles. I played her twice, and I remember this one match specifically at the beginning of my career in Palm Springs.

“I’m very young, I had a wildcard. I win my first round. I draw Monica. I lose, I think it was like one and one, one and 0.

“And she smoked me, like I wasn’t even there. I didn’t belong there, nothing. And I didn’t even cry because the level was so far.

“I was 15/16, it was like my first wildcard in a big event, and I’ve just come off the court and thought ‘Well, I guess that’s greatness, and this is how far I have to go’.”

Steffi Graf

“My third is Steffi Graf,” she continued. “Things I liked about her is that she was someone that was all in, there were no distractions.

“I feel like so many stars today, they’re faced with opportunities, they’re doing things off the court, and a lot of that is great.

“But when I think of Steffi, I think of the ultimate professional. It leads to greatness. Very stoic, just very calm.

“Nothing seems to faze her, like, just very professional about how she goes. And that was inspiring, right?

“Because when you get to the top and you look at greats, like how did they handle success? She was an example. And that slice, I mean, I would have hated to play against that slice.”

Chris Evert

Rounding out her picks, Sharapova added: “My last one is Chrissie Evert.

“I’ve gotten to know Chrissie since retiring. She was always on my mood board when I was designing looks with Nike.

“She was class, but she brought an element to the game that I think transcended just being a champion.”

It’s a strong list from the Russian, who had no shortage of quality names to choose from after a career spent competing against many of the game’s best players.

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