Maria Sharapova — tennis player with roots in the USSR
Maria Sharapova, born 19 April 1987 in Nyagan, Russian SFSR, is a retired tennis player who represented Russia. She won five Grand Slam singles titles (Wimbledon 2004, US Open 2006, Australian Open 2008, French Open 2012 and 2014), completing the career Grand Slam in 2012, and held the world No. 1 ranking for 21 weeks. She served a 15-month suspension after testing positive for meldonium in 2016, retired in February 2020 and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2025.
"The family moved from Nyagan to Sochi in 1990; in 1994 she travelled to the United States with her father Yuri, and her mother joined them two years later."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Nyagan (Russian SFSR)
Born in Nyagan (Russian SFSR, USSR) in 1987 to parents from Gomel; the family moved to Sochi in 1990, and she went to the United States with her father in 1994, training in Bradenton, Florida, from 1995.
Her parents, Yuri and Yelena, came from Gomel (Byelorussian SSR) and left it shortly before her birth.
Nyagan (Russian SFSR). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.
A career defined by ambition
"I am Russian. That is something I have always been proud of and will always be proud of."