GOODBYE TO TENNIS

The ice queen of the court has retired from the game – and Maria Sharapova will be remembered as a controversial yet respected figure

- SANDY COOK

FOR years she’s been the glamazon of women’s tennis: statuesque, formidable, icy and driven, with a piercing grunt that shattered on-court decibel records.

But now Maria Sharapova has called time on her long career. And she’s chosen to announce it on the glossy websites of Vogue and Vanity Fair, penning an intimate love letter to a sport that’s afforded her both fame and notoriety – as well as a vast fortune.

“How do you leave behind the only life you’ve ever known?” she begins.

“How do you walk away from the courts you’ve trained on since you were a little girl, the game that you love – one which brought you untold tears and unspeakable joy – a sport where you found a family, along with fans who rallied behind you for more than 28 years?

“I’m new to this, so please forgive me. Tennis – I’m saying goodbye.”

News of the five-time Grand Slam winner’s departure from the game will be greeted with mixed emotions by her opponents and tennis fans. With her ferocious ambition and haughty demeanour, Maria (32) was neither Miss Congeniality nor a locker-room favourite – and her drug scandal in 2016 knocked her a few rungs further down the popularity ladder.

Maria never again reached the heights she’d once enjoyed. Once at the top of rankings, she leaves the game languishing at 373 – and she’ll go down in history as one of the most controversial players ever to set foot on a professional court.

SHE hit her first tennis ball at the age of four and was six when she bade farewell to her mother, Yelena, in Sochi, Rus­sia, and boarded a plane with her father, Yuri.