When Maria Sharapova’s memoir Unstoppable: My Life So Far came out, I knew I had to read it. I ran to the nearest Barnes and Noble and was lucky enough to find the perfect vanilla-scented copy. I cracked open the book and was immediately mesmerized by the few pictures that Sharapova included. I thought to myself how precious the pictures were because they represented the author’s way of letting us into her own life story, which included successes, struggles, love, and heartbreak. I couldn’t wait to learn the story behind them. On my way out of the store, I contemplated on a place where it would be appropriate to read the book—and what better place than a tennis court would that be? Since I lived only a few minutes away from Penn Park, I decided to head over there.
I practically spent the whole day basking in the sun with my glasses on, standing at the tennis tribunes and going over what were thirty years of the life of one of the most successful and influential female tennis players who had ever lived. The moment I closed the memoir I felt like a reborn person. I recommend this book to anyone and let me tell you why.
Do you know the feeling when you’ve been working hard toward a dream, and one day you see this dream crumble right in front of your eyes? This is where the book begins. Maria opens her email finding a correspondence from the International Tennis Federation announcing that she has failed a drug test at the Australian Open. She has taken meldonium (or as called in Eastern Europe – Mildronate), which the World Anti-Doping Agency has added to the list of banned substances on January 1st, 2016. As a result, Sharapova is suspended for up to four years, which represents a lifetime for any person, let alone an athlete. Later, her suspension is reduced to fifteen months.
Sharapova explains the year she has gone through, the vulnerability she has faced, and the people who have let her down during this period. One particular scene comes alive in front of my eyes when she goes to bed crying only to wake up red-eyed and puffy. Still, she dresses up to attend a spinning class with her coach, only to cry all the way throughout the entire class in the dark letting all of her emotions and pain out. Sharapova’s strength to be sincere about something so personal is commendable. Her vulnerability expresses her strength to face the mistake that she and her team have made. But it is also proof that she has nothing to hide, even though many have criticized her character. And her character, as the book concludes, is built on the court where she belongs—and where she wants to win.
But do you remember the feeling when you set out to achieve a dream and you feel like Bambi, uncertain of every decision that you make? This represents Sharapova’s period until her first big game at Wimbledon’s final in 2004 against Serena Williams, which was one of her only two wins against Williams. Sharapova’s early childhood in Russia is marked by her parents’ struggles to make ends meet. Many circumstances lead Sharapova to grab a tennis racquet. Her father Yuri receives a racquet as a gift and becomes a fan of the sport himself at a time when tennis is considered a luxury sport in Russia. When moving to Sochi, he brings Sharapova to the tennis courts at the nearby park where she falls in love with the sport without even realizing it at such an early age. Consequently, both a local coach and Martina Navratilova notice Sharapova’s talent. Martina Navratilova points her father to the United States, where Sharapova can develop her extraordinary talent. From this moment on, Yuri becomes the father who believes in his daughter with respectful determination and perseverance. Her mother Yelena agrees to the ‘crazy’ idea of Maria and her father leaving everything behind in Sochi and going to Florida to chase after a dream that at that time might have seemed impossible.
Do you remember a time when you’ve already made a big step in your life, and you feel like you are hooked on this ‘crazy’ dream so much that you don’t want a way out? Sharapova and her father spend years moving from academy to academy, facing adversities, financial troubles and people trying to take advantage of their position. But at the same time, they learn multiple lessons, meet kind-hearted people and develop strong mentalities that allow them not to give up, no matter what happens. After many struggles, Sharapova is able to sign a contract with IMG, which sponsor her to compete in tournaments traveling from town to town, from city to city with both of her parents. By this time, her mother has also acquired a visa to stay in the United States, after nearly four years in which Sharapova hasn’t seen her mother. Slowly and gradually, the path has been set and Sharapova has found herself as a seventeen-year old on Centre Court in Wimbledon against Serena Williams with nothing to lose. This is exactly when and where Sharapova’s mentality has proved to be her biggest weapon. An apparent underdog in the match, Sharapova has been able to rise triumphant.
Do you know the feeling when you’re living the dream, but you realize that you’ve left behind the most important things in life out of the equation? Maria goes on to talk about two of her most significant relationships in her life. Her relationship with Sasha Vujacic, an NBA basketball player, almost leads to marriage, but then suddenly doesn’t because of irreconcilable differences. Her subsequent relationship with Grigor Dimitrov, a Bulgarian tennis player, ends up in heartbreak (from what I have read.) One of the quotes from the book that stuck in my mind is when she says, “Grigor recently told me—we were talking on the phone after he’d reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open—that one of the worst things in life is when you have the right thing at the wrong time.”
As I closed Sharapova’s memoir, questions popped up in my head, questions that have come up in my life several times: Am I willing to sacrifice my own dreams and needs at the expense of someone else’s dreams and needs? Am I willing to dedicate my time fully and respectfully to someone else, when my whole life has been concentrated on me and no one else? Are there really such things as a ‘wrong time’ and a ‘good time’ for the most important things in life?
And, if there are, how do you capture the good time?’
Sharapova’s memoir has also taught me some more of the obvious lessons. Sometimes people get so caught up with the past that they never look to the present, forgetting that the past is over and done. However, the future is not to be planned out because it is the result of the present. If you don’t dedicate yourself to and work hard in the present moment, then the future moment will be nothing but a failure. And obviously no one wants to fail. Everyone wants to win, but to win you have to lose, you have to be down a couple of times and you have to feel vulnerable to feel strong.
This book book doesn’t just represent Sharapova’s life story, it represents every person’s life story. We all want to achieve our dreams, to win, to love and be loved. I sometimes feel that without love, you cannot win. Hence, we have our family, friends and significant others to be next to us when the storms come in and the sun is hiding behind the clouds. But they are also next to us when the sun shines through the clouds and a remarkable rainbow shows up in the sky. Maria Sharapova wouldn’t have been successful without her parents, friends, team and everyone who had ever loved her. I believe that in times like these, we should all turn to the people who we love the most, hold them tight, never let them go and tell them how much they mean to us. They are the reasons why we are following our dreams in the first place.
Cover Photo Courtesy of GettyImages
By Kristina Lalova