By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
One of the most decorated women athletes in the whole of sports announced her retirement at the age of 32.
Maria Sharapova, a five-time grand slam champion in her professional tennis career, announced her farewell from the sport she loved and she once dominated.
The Russian sensation wrote an essay for Vanity Fair, stating that she is ready to hang them up after an illustrious career.
Notable for her never say die attitude, her relentlessness on the court, and her big-time baseline game, Sharapova was a former world no. 1 and was a dominant athlete in the sport for many years.
However, her career went to a total decline after getting banned from the sport due to a violation against the doping rules, preventing her from professional tennis for 15 years.
After her comeback, Sharapova suffered numerous heart-wrecking defeats including first-round exits in the tournaments she used to dominate.
From a former world no. 1, Sharapova’s ranking began to descend all the way to being ranked no. 373 , a career-low.
“Tennis showed me the world and it showed me what I was made of. It’s how I tested myself and how I measured my growth. And so in whatever I might choose for my next chapter, my next mountain, I’ll still be pushing. I’ll still be climbing. I’ll still be growing,” Sharapova wrote in her finishing stanzas in Vanity Fair.
