On February 26, 2020, Maria Sharapova announced the end of her career with a vogue article.
The choice is sudden, very different, very surprising, but at the same time you can automatically find an explanation for this surprise. All in all, this is "she", the posture and style that a big heroine will have when she turns around and says goodbye.
From turning into a profession in 2001 to saying goodbye in 2020, this beautiful, cold Russian girl has left too many indelible marks on the world for more than 20 years. With the phrase "tennis-i'm saying goodbye" left on the social networking site, from the players to the event, from the media to the fans, from the professional tennis world to different circles, everyone searches for memories related to her in their minds, there are cherished, there are regrets, there are reluctance, there are blessings.
There is no doubt that this is her success as a player and her success as an epoch-making icon of WTA.
In her long career, she has been carefully packaged by wta, event parties and sponsors since she was a teenager, and she has conformed to the trend of the times, and finally changed from a developer to a developer, from an enlightened person to an enlightened person.
It was after Maria Sharapova that tennis began to change: the goals of the players were no longer just championships and prize money, they worked hard to develop themselves from multiple dimensions, both stars and stars, assets and bosses, in order to find a more perfect self in a wider space.
First, the productivity of beauty
It is well known that Tipsalevich has a tattoo on his body , "Beauty Saves the World", which comes from Dostoevsky's "Idiot".
This is Toon's interpretation of beauty, arguing that "beauty is inherent in all sound, that is, energetic, essential needs of the human body" and that "without beauty man may not want to live in the world."
In the women's tennis world, from the face to the figure, from the clothing to the posture, this "beauty" has always been innate, natural, from the day there is tennis.
Examples include Susan Langren's bare calves under her light gauze skirt, Gabriela Sabatini's thick black hair and rich Latin flair, and Kurnikova's health and sexiness on and off the pitch... However, it was not until the appearance of Sharapova that this beauty was really valued and became a productive force in the tennis economy that can be equally important as the skill.
It all started in 2004, when Sharapova was just a 17-year-old girl.
When she came to Wimbledon to compete, no one but her and her father believed she would do wonders there. However, she was stunned that she was not optimistic, and won round after round as a "dark horse", and finally came to Serena Williams.
Facing the defending champion, who is 6 years older than herself, the young Russian girl entered the state quickly, and she beat her opponent to the point of losing her temper as soon as she came up. The audience, like the Americans, did not have time to react, and the score in the first set became 6-1. Next, despite Serena catching up, Sava won 6-4.
The All England Meadows Club was jubilant, and people were stunned, amazed and praised to usher in a new title – the second youngest women's singles title in Wimbledon history after the 16-year-old Singis in 1997. More crucially, she was more beautiful and in better shape than all the champions in history.
Overnight, the blonde-haired and long-legged Sharapova became the "golden treasure" in people's eyes, and sponsors flocked to her with checks. In addition to the original clothing sponsorship, she took over a large order covering different fields such as mobile phones, cameras, watches, shampoos, perfumes, and leather goods. Her agent, Max Eisenbad, revealed: "At the time, my mailbox was full of emails that wanted her endorsement, and my phone was always ringing. ”
Sponsors are profit-seeking, and they value her business potential, which includes achievements and beauty.
Although the exclusion of the latter is suspected of political incorrectness, it is indeed one of the obvious factors affecting value in commercial society. When Kurnikova was unable to secure a bigger contract because of the delay in winning the championship, Sharapova's emergence made everyone realize that they were about to usher in a new era of tennis economy.
The wta and the tournament side naturally noticed this. Wherever she goes, russian girls are the top names for publicity: shooting posters, holding autograph parties, standing on the stage for organizers, and her popularity has never disappointed.
As a result, "beauty" was justifiably discussed and realized, and it became a productive force and one of the factors that promoted the continued development of tennis worldwide. Along with her, her contemporaries and later Anna Ivanovich, Maria Kirilenko, Anna Chakvitadze, and Nicole Vajdisova were all more favored.
They are like the "destiny's children" of the first 10 years of the 21st century, and Maria Sharapova is one of them.
Second, cross-border influence
Beauty has become an indispensable factor in the tennis economy, the result and demand of the advancement of the times, and Sharapova just stood at the peak of that era.
There she was, as a five-time Grand Slam champion and Grand Slam winner, to become an icon on a par with Serena Williams – all of whom changed the sport on different levels and the world on which the sport depended.
For Sharapova herself, the fighting spirit on the pitch, the indomitable in the face of injuries, and the persistence of doing things that she is not good at, the more she must do it well, are the driving force behind her continuous climbing. When she wrote the WTA's slogan "strong is beautiful", the external and inner nature of female players, the individualism and collective spirit of the tennis movement became unified, and she was the number one signboard and number one ambassador in the tennis world.
In addition to tennis itself, the ambassador has attracted attention from other fields.
Growing up, she continued to meet people in sports, entertainment, fashion, culture, business and politics.
Anna Wintur, editor-in-chief of the American vogue, Korean-American designer Jeong Douli, fashion designer Vera Wang, architect Frank Gehry and famous actress Michelle Trachtenberg are her friends, they attend her birthday dinner, design clothes and jewelry with her, invite her to appear on the cover of various magazines in different outfits...
Her good relationships with the fashion and entertainment worlds have made her a regular at film premieres and on the runway. She has appeared several times at the Met Gala Charity Gala in New York, and her 2016 high-slit red dress with an elegant smile is impressive. Earlier this month, at the "Vanity Fair" dinner after the Oscars, she could also be seen wearing a yellow sheer ground long skirt.
Not only does she leave a static memory behind the camera of a photojournalist, she also guest starred in the film Ocean's 8 starring Sandra Bullock, Kate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna and others, set in the met gala. In the American drama "Morning News" starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, she also appeared in the form of a picture-in-picture, interviewing two female hosts in the "Morning News".
In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin is also a figure on her "friends list", and he once publicly wrote a letter to celebrate his birthday.
At the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics in February 2014, she appeared as the first torchbearer in the main venue, relayed with gymnast Alina Kabaeva and wrestler Alexander Karelin, and finally handed over the torch to be lit by Three-time Russian Figure Skating Olympic Champion Irina Rodnina and ice hockey player Vladislav Trediako.
Obviously, for Sharapova, life is more than just a tennis court, it is full of challenges and possibilities. As former South African President Nelson Mandela put it, "Every time you climb a mountain, you will find more mountains waiting for you".
From the stadium to the runway, from one field to more fields, the long-sleeved and dancing Russians continue to try, continue to expand the extension of tennis, and constantly complete their personal transformation.
Under her influence, more and more people noticed tennis, were willing to learn about it and threw themselves into it; more and more players such as Muguruza and Kvitova appeared on the runway, magazine covers and screens to show the power and beauty of the sport and tell their own and tennis stories.
Third, the centripetal force of resources
From 2001 to 2020, Sharapova felt she had been in professional tennis long enough. Now, at the age of 32, she has decided to let herself go and stop fighting with her body, which carries various injuries.
She wrote a retirement letter, published on the vogue website, and carried out the crossover to the end as a cross-border star.
In the letter, she recalls flying with her father from Siberia to Florida when she was 6 years old. It was 1994, and the father and daughter, who were pursuing their dreams of professional tennis, came to the Nick Politani Tennis School, the predecessor of IMG Academy. There, she received technical, tactical, physical and psychological training, laying a solid foundation for becoming an "all-round warrior" in the future.
With her initial obsession, she turned what was once out of reach into a daily routine, and in the process she continued to learn, drawing nourishment from wta, sponsors, agencies, media agencies, friends from all walks of life, and all collaborators.
She is getting better at socializing and more confident in her business abilities. "I want people to not only notice my face, I can play and I can try a lot differently." As she spoke, she officially introduced sugarpova, a long-awaited personal candy brand, to the market in the summer of 2012.
"Sugar" is candy, while "pova" comes from her last name "sharapova". The $5.99 per sachet of candy quickly became popular around the world, with counters in New York, Tokyo, Melbourne, London and other places, and the sales performance was quite eye-catching.
Since then, she has often promoted her candy at wta promotions or tours, and even let reporters have a "consumer experience" at post-match press conferences. In 2014, she attended the press conference with "sugarpova" at the Suez Open in Paris: "I said that if I won the championship, I would invite you to eat sugar, but now I want to bring some sugar to share with you. However, I was embarrassed that they only gave me a bag. ”
Don't underestimate this small bag of candy, which is the cornerstone of the "Sharapova business empire". After taking her first steps, she also became a partner in the skincare company "supergoop", the social software Charly, invested in the UFC Ultimate Fighting Championship, and collaborated with renowned architect Dan Mace to design the hotel gym...
To build her business empire, she moved to Harvard Business School in 2016 to take a business program to learn how to form and manage teams. In addition, she went to NBA headquarters for an internship and attended several operational meetings over a period of 3 days.
Under her influence, more and more players realized that they could do more than just play. Halep owns several resorts and also funds a Romanian women's ice hockey team; Monfils is a global ambassador for a digital currency trading social investment platform, and he himself makes long-term investments in digital currencies.
"After 28 years with the sport and winning five Grand Slam titles, I'm ready to conquer the next mountain and open up new territory. A desire to win? Such beliefs will never go away. Whatever awaits me ahead, I put in the same attention, my work attitude, and all that I've learned along the way. ”
Eventually, after dedicating herself unreservedly to tennis and changing the sport, Sharapova, 32, was going to climb another mountain, as Mandela had said.