Unstoppable: My Life So Far

Description

The fiercely honest, fearless, darkly funny autobiography of Maria Sharapova- child tennis star, global brand, survivor. In the middle of the night, a father and his daughter step off a Greyhound bus in Florida and head straight to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. They ring the bell, though no one is expecting them and they don't speak English. They have arrived from Russia with just seven hundred dollars and the conviction that this six-year-old girl will be the world's next great tennis star. They are right. This is Maria Sharapova's gripping and fearless autobiography, telling her story from her roots in the small Siberian town her parents had fled to after the Chernobyl disaster, through her arrival in the US and her phenomenal rise to success - winning Wimbledon aged just seventeen - to the disasters that threatened her career and her fight back. Here the five-time Grand Slam winner gives us candid insights into her relationship with her father, who gave up his job and life in Russia to dedicate himself to his daughter; the truth behind her famous rivalry with Serena Williams; the injuries and suspension controversy that threatened to end it all. It's a story of of crazy luck, mistakes, rivalries, sacrifice, survival and, above all, the constant, unwavering determination to win.

Born in Nyagan, Russia, Maria Sharapova moved to the United States when she was six years old. At seventeen, Sharapova beat Serena Williams to win Wimbledon. She reached the number-one world ranking at eighteen, and has held that ranking a number of times since. To date, she has won five Grand Slams. She lives in Manhattan Beach, California.

An illuminating account ... Unstoppable is about everything that made Sharapova the kind of unflappable competitor who wouldn't let a 15-month service interruption, or the very vocal disapproval of her peers, come between her and her ambition. This is the bildungsroman of a controversial champion, a portrait of the athlete as an uncommonly driven young woman -- Julia Felsenthal * Vogue * A fascinating and well-written insight into her struggles, triumphs, obsession with Williams, Russian pessimism and the roots of that famous haughtiness -- Simon Hattenstone * Guardian * An inspiring memoir about coming-of-age ... Sure to satisfy longtime fans of women's tennis * Booklist *