Latest news with #Sharapova
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Maria Sharapova Says Her Biggest Purchase Was a Mattress After Winning First Tennis Tournament
For most athletes, their first big paycheck often leads to luxury cars, designer clothes, or extravagant vacations. But for tennis superstar Maria Sharapova, her first major purchase after winning a significant tournament wasn't flashy — it was a Hästens mattress. Reflecting on her journey, Sharapova shared that back in 2004, after her breakthrough victory, she walked into a Hästens store in Los Angeles, determined to invest in something that would truly enhance her performance and well-being. Advertisement 'Sleep is essential to performance regardless of industry or where people may be in their careers', said Sharapova. 'My first big purchase after a tournament win was a Hästens mattress and even though it was an investment, it was one of the most important purchases of my career,' she added. Maria Sharapova and James Blake compete during Pickleball Slam 2 at Hard Rock Live© Jim Rassol-Imagn Images 'My love for Hästens goes back to 2004 when I went to the store in Los Angeles with my first big pay check from a tournament I won. I had the most amazing experience,' she explained. Despite the hefty price tag, Sharapova didn't hesitate. "It was quite an investment at the time for me, but nonetheless, I still sleep on that bed to this day," she added, highlighting the long-lasting quality and value of her decision. Sharapova's connection to Hästens is about more than just luxury — it's rooted in a genuine appreciation for craftsmanship and performance. Over the years, she became fascinated by the meticulous process behind the brand's handmade beds, seeing it as a reflection of the same dedication and excellence she strived for in her own tennis career. Tennis great Maria Sharapova was on hand for the debut of the new Porsche 911 © Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY Now, as she transitions into her post-playing career, Sharapova is passionate about helping others achieve peak performance in their own lives. Partnering officially with Hästens felt like a natural step. "I wanted to partner with Hästens to help broaden the way we think about performance, with the understanding of how vital sleep is to everyone in every industry," she said. Maria Sharapova's story shows that true success isn't just about what you do during the day — it's also about how well you recover at night. Her early decision to invest in an expensive mattress with her first earnings, might have been questionable, but it was definitely a long lasting one.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Maria Sharapova Celebrates 38th Birthday In Style As She Tours Japan
Maria Sharapova celebrated her 38th birthday on Saturday at a posh and stylish retreat in Tokyo, Japan. She was also kind enough to give her fans on Instagram a preview of how she spent the special occasion. The five-time Grand Slam champion uploaded an in-gym mirror selfie early that morning, with the message, "The only jet lag I accept is in Tokyo. And if it's at a gym at 5:30 am, preferably the @aman_tokyo," showcasing her fitness-conscious routine regardless of the occasion and her holiday destination. Maria Sharapova's love affair with Japan continued, where she has been a frequent visitor during her career and in retirement. Her decision to stay at the upscale Aman Tokyo hotel speaks to her love of the city's importance of tradition and modernity. Advertisement Fans and peers from the tennis community also celebrated her birthday by pouring her birthday greetings through social media. The official X (formerly Twitter) account for the Australian Open posted, "I love Australia! Happy birthday, @MariaSharapova," along with a video reel of her memorable Australian Open experiences. The Tennis Letter also offered birthday wishes in the form of a tweet, stating, "Happy Birthday to Maria Sharapova." The U.S. Open also posted a special video for Maria, remembering her iconic and fond memories at Flushing Meadows. Meanwhile, fan accounts such as @NewsSharapova also sent greeting messages, calling her "an incredible human being." Sharapova will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in August as part of the Class of 2025. She is one of 10 women to have won the career Grand Slam. As she continues to navigate her post-tennis life, Sharapova remains a source of inspiration with her commitment to health, world travel and multiple businesses, extending the lasting legacy she has created both on and off the tennis court.
Fox Sports
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox Sports
Oops! Looking at other trophy mishaps following JD Vance's fumble
Vice President JD Vance got to celebrate his alma mater's most recent college football title at the White House on Monday, but it came with him being on the wrong side of a viral moment. While remarks were being made during Ohio State's trip to the White House, Vance tried to lift the College Football Playoff championship trophy. However, the award was dismantled as he lifted it, with star running back TreVeyon Henderson needing to swoop in to fix the situation. Vance laughed off the moment on social media a little bit later, joking that he "didn't want anyone after Ohio State to get the trophy." Monday's mishap was far from the first time that someone has messed up a trophy during a celebration, though. So, let's take a look at some of the more unfortunate moments people have had with trophies over the years. Real Madrid's Copa del Rey trophy gets run over After winning its first Copa Del Rey title in 18 years, Real Madrid got a little too excited during its championship parade. As a double-decker bus moved down a street in Madrid, legendary center back Sergio Ramos scored the celebration equivalent of an own goal. He dropped the trophy, which fell in front of the bus. As the driver didn't have any time to react, the trophy got run over by the bus. The trophy wound up getting dented. Sharapova couldn't contain her excitement when she defeated Justine Henin-Hardenne in the women's singles final at the 2006 US Open. During the trophy celebration, Sharapova instantly began to jump up and down, which caused the lid of the trophy to fall off and nearly hit her head. Graham Mertz's most memorable moment during his time as Wisconsin's quarterback arguably came off the field. After leading Wisconsin to a 42-28 win in the 2020 Mayo Bowl, Mertz and his Badgers teammates each danced with the trophy in the locker room. Once Mertz got it, the glass football slipped from its placeholder and shattered all over the floor. Now, head coaches get doused in mayo after winning the Mayo Bowl, a likely safer celebration. When you have a trophy that has existed for over 100 years, it's bound to have gone through some bumps and bruises over the years. The closest call the Stanley Cup came to getting completely destroyed came in 1962, when the Maple Leafs dropped the trophy in a bonfire and severely damaged it. The team expensed the repairs for the trophy. Two years later, when the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup again, Red Kelly's infant son accidentally urinated in the trophy as the two posed for a picture. Nicolas Aube-Kubel trips with the Stanley Cup in hand The most recent mishap with the Stanley Cup came in 2022. After members of the Colorado Avalanche took their trip around the ice with the trophy following their victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, Aube-Kubel skated with the trophy in hand as he went to go join his team for a picture, but he tripped and fell. While he luckily had the Stanley Cup to help break his fall, a dent was put in the trophy that caused it to be repaired shortly after. Prior to the advent of the College Football Playoff, college football teams vied for the BCS crystal football. But as cool as a crystal football might look, it's relatively easy to destroy. Both Florida and Alabama learned that the hard way. While visiting Florida on a recruiting trip in 2008, ex-NFL player Orson Charles went to pose with the trophy the team won for its title in 2006. As Charles did that, he accidentally knocked the trophy over, causing it to smash. Four years later, Alabama's 2011 BCS championship trophy suffered a similar fate. Long snapper Carlson Tinker's father, Carleton, got to lift the trophy during Alabama's spring game in 2012. After he placed the trophy back down, though, Tinker heard a smash, with it shattering all over the floor. "I'm not really sure how the thing fell off," Tinker told ESPN shortly after the incident. Tinker offered to repay for the damages by working at the school on weekends, but the program got a replacement trophy instead. Rob Gronkowski puts a dent in the Lombardi Trophy Gronkowski left his mark with the New England Patriots — literally. After winning his third Super Bowl title with the team in 2018, Gronkowski announced his first retirement in March 2019. A few weeks later, he had one last celebration with his Patriots teammates when they threw out the first pitch at a Boston Red Sox game. But before the Patriots took the field at Fenway Park that day, they had some fun throwing a baseball around. Gronkowski went to take a pitch with the Lombardi Trophy in his hand. He didn't swing, but he bunted instead, making strong enough contact with the ball that it caused a dent in the Lombardi Trophy. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily. recommended Get more from College Football Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
The Guardian
04-03-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Athletes on fertility, egg freezing and having it all: ‘I can have it if I want it'
The cold sterility of a gynecologist's office is about as far removed as you can get from a tennis court, a basketball gym, or a bobsled run. The crinkling white paper, the flimsy open-face gown that leaves patients vulnerable and freezing, the intimidating silver instruments laid out neatly on a table – it's hardly an environment that feels empowering. Yet some of the highest highs and lowest lows of women's lives take place in such rooms, just as they do on clay courts, snowy terrain or hardwood floors. It's no small thing that women's peak fertility coincides with their peak athletic performance. It's a cruel twist of fate that just as professional female athletes must begin asking themselves whether they want to have children – and, if so, when and how – they are also focused on pushing their bodies to their limits for as long as possible. As a result, for many women competing at the elite level, family planning gets pushed to the back burner simply because there's nowhere else for it to go. Four-time Olympic medalist Kaillie Humphries admitted in a phone interview, 'There was not a thought about family planning at all' when she first began bobsledding at 17. Elite athletes and Olympians often structure their lives in four-to-12-year increments, dictated by the Olympic cycle. Humphries didn't seriously consider having a baby until she was in her early 30s. Part of that delay stemmed from feeling like she didn't have the option to pursue both career and motherhood. Bobsleigh, in particular, keeps athletes on the road for months at a time. (This October, Humphries and the 2026 Olympic team will head to Europe and won't return until March.) Without female role models in the sport who had successfully balanced elite competition with raising a family, Humphries turned to her male counterparts – many of whom told her outright that it simply wasn't possible to do both. The idea that women can't have it all – or, worse, that they don't have the choice to try – is something that irks tennis legend and former Olympian Maria Sharapova. Though she conceived her son without fertility assistance, Sharapova is a strong advocate for women's autonomy in deciding when and how to have children. To that end, she is an investor in Cofertility, a company offering fertility services such as IVF and egg freezing. The company also allows women to donate half their retrieved eggs in exchange for free fertility treatments. 'As a professional athlete, my body was quite literally my business,' Sharapova told the Guardian via email. Women across industries face similar dilemmas, she noted, and investing in egg freezing was an easy way for her to 'mitigate the strain of the so-called biological clock'. Perhaps, one day, that ticking clock will be nothing more than a relic of the past – a byproduct of an era when women's reproductive choices were dictated by external forces rather than personal autonomy. At least, that's Sharapova's hope. 'When women have the opportunity to navigate their careers on their own terms by freezing their eggs, they unlock more autonomy in all aspects of their lives,' she emphasized. 'They can take the time to find the right partner and start a family when they are financially and emotionally ready.' Autonomy is at the root of nearly every question women ask themselves about having children. But sometimes, timing isn't a matter of choice. Humphries learned this the hard way. Once she decided she was ready for motherhood, she assumed her body would cooperate – just as it had in so many other instances. 'My body has always responded when I needed it to,' she said. 'And I think this was just me being immature. This was me thinking my body was amazing. As an Olympic gold medalist, it's always responded when I needed it to, and I just assumed that when I wanted to have kids, I'd stop using protection and get pregnant right away. And that was not the case – not even close.' Instead, Humphries was diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis after an MRI revealed a large cyst on her ovary. When she went in to have it removed, doctors discovered that the endometriosis was widespread and had attached to her organs in a way that made surgical removal impossible. With few other options, she and her husband, fellow bobsledder Travis Armbruster, 'went straight to IVF'. Make no mistake: the IVF process is grueling. And because Humphries was attempting to get pregnant while still competing at an Olympic level, she had to carve out the time and energy to stimulate her ovaries, retrieve her eggs, freeze them, thaw them, develop embryos, transfer them back into her womb, and, ultimately, carry a pregnancy to term – all while maintaining her training regimen. Navigating that process also meant having difficult conversations with the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, something she described as 'tough'. Yet, in many ways, Humphries was one of the lucky ones. Her $30,000 annual salary could be put toward IVF cycles. USA Bobsled/Skeleton was supportive of her desire to become a mother. Her coaches trusted that she would be able to return to Olympic shape in time for the next Winter Games. But unlike the WNBA, which reimburses players up to $60,000 for fertility treatments such as egg freezing and IVF, Humphries said Olympic athletes are often left to fend for themselves. She and Armbruster have personally financed their IVF journey, as well as the cost of traveling with their child overseas so that Humphries can continue to compete. Then, there was the matter of her ranking. If any part of her pregnancy or postpartum recovery took too long, she risked losing her standing in the sport and being forced to start over from the bottom – despite her Olympic medals and titles – simply because she chose to have a child. After giving birth, she was given 18 months to return to an elite level; otherwise, she would lose her monthly stipend, insurance and ranking in one fell swoop. Humphries returned to competition just five months postpartum. Both Humphries and Sharapova believe more conversations need to take place between older and younger female athletes. While Sharapova didn't personally feel pressure to have a child before 30, she acknowledged, 'I can easily see and understand how other women could feel that societal pressure. It's no secret that women reach peak fertility between their late teens and late 20s. And even though the idea that women must have children during that time is outdated, it makes sense that age would still be a biological concern.' Humphries echoed that sentiment. 'A lot more conversations need to happen,' she said. 'And I think there needs to be a lot more support for female athletes in general. Because, as I've learned, getting pregnant and starting a family is not always straightforward, and it's not always easy.' 'I think, especially as female athletes and high-performance competitors, there's not enough education or understanding around fertility. I do wish I had frozen my eggs when I was younger… it was a mad scramble when I finally did it. I could have done it at a more convenient time – during an injury, for instance, when I was already physically down.' Athletes in their 20s, she added, are almost never going to prioritize fertility planning over hiring a coach or investing in equipment. 'They're still trying to earn that first gold medal or qualify for the Olympics. They don't have the financial means or the mental bandwidth to say, 'You know what? Let me think about my fertility right now.'' Part of the solution lies with organizations such as national Olympic committees and individual sports federations, which could incorporate family planning into their budgets. But it's also up to veteran athletes to step in and say, 'Learn from me. Take it from me. And now, how can we support the younger generation?' 'I just want everyone to have the option – because I didn't,' Humphries concluded. 'I hope the younger generation realizes, 'You know what? You can have it all. You can be a mom. You can be competitive. You can be the best in the world.' 'Look at Naomi Osaka: there are women coming back to sport and performing as badass moms. I want 20-year-olds to know: If you want it, you can have it.'
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Alexander Zverev Called Out for Domestic Violence Allegations During Runner-Up Speech at Australian Open
Alexander Zverev's Australian Open final speech was interrupted by an audience member expressing support for two of his ex-girlfriends, who have accused him of domestic violence. After losing to Jannik Sinner in the Grand Slam on Sunday, Jan. 26 — his third career Grand Slam loss — the tennis star, 27, stepped onstage to speak at the trophy ceremony, but was quickly cut off by someone shouting in the Melbourne Park crowd, according to reports from BBC Sports, The Athletic and the Associated Press. 'Australia believes Olya and Brenda!' the audience member shouted, referring to Zverev's former partners, Olya Sharapova and Brenda Patea, The Athletic reported. They repeated the same phrase three times, per the AP. According to The New York Times-owned sports outlet, the athlete smiled to himself as a mixture of applause and booing arose throughout the Melbourne stadium. After a brief pause, he began his runner-up speech, in which he elected not to acknowledge the heckler. Zverev did, however, address the interruption in a news conference that followed the ceremony, stating that he is not 'open' to discussing the allegations moving forward. 'I believe there are no more accusations,' he said, per The Athletic. 'There haven't been for, what, nine months now.' The tennis star then addressed the heckler's comment that 'Australia believes' his exes' allegations more directly, stating, 'Good for her, I think she was the only one in the stadium who believed anything in that moment.' 'I think I've done everything I can, and I'm not about to open that subject again,' he concluded. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Sharapova, a former tennis player, has accused Zverev of repeatedly abusing her throughout 2019, according to The Athletic. She went public with the allegations on social media and in a story published by Slate, but did not press charges. The pro athlete denied Sharapova's allegations, calling them "unfounded,' according to BBC Sports. And though Sharapova did not take any legal action, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) conducted its own investigation against Zverev, and found 'insufficient evidence' of her claims, per the British outlet. In 2023, Patea, with whom Zverev shares a child, also leveled abuse allegations at the pro athlete, accusing him of pushing her against a wall and choking her, per The Athletic. He denied all of the allegations. Patea brought charges against Zverev in Berlin's Tiergarten court and in October of that year, a judge imposed a penalty order of $489,000 on the tennis star, which he later appealed, according to the sports outlet. This led to a public trial that began in May 2024, and was slated to run during the French Open and Wimbledon, but was subsequently settled out of court. At the time, a spokesperson for the Berlin court made a statement clarifying that the decision to settle 'is not a verdict and it is not a decision about guilt or innocence,' The Athletic reported. Zverev is currently in a relationship with Sophia Thomalla. If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People
