Siberian Glam girl scripts another fairytale to lift the year end championships in front of 10,000 spectators at LA

Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova defeated an aching Serena Williams 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 on Monday to win the 3 million dollar WTA tour championship and solidify her status as the game's elite. The 17 year old Russian who shot to global prominence when she defeated two time Wimbledon champion Williams at this year's event, handed the former world no.1 another disappointment in front of 10,000 fans at the staples centre.

Williams battling an abdominal strain still managed to come within two games of winning the close three setter, by winning the first four games of the final set before Sharapova took control of the match and won it.

"I am still thinking, I can't believe it the way I pulled it out, said Sharapova.

She is more than just a pretty face. Maria Sharapova who was not born in a tennis environment and neither was from a wealthy family, grew up playing the sport thousands of miles away from her parents, specially her mom as she was away for three years from her from the age of just nine. I look at the glittering start to a career that promises a lot in the decade to come.

17-year-old Russian Maria Sharapova won the end-of-season WTA Tour Championship in Los Angeles, beating Serena Williams (in a repeat of the Wimbledon final) in three sets (4-6 6-2 6-4) in the final on Monday, 15 November. Sharapova ended up winning five titles in 2004 to add to her two from 2003. These five were all won between June and November and she has reached at least the last four of each of her last six tournaments.

BORN                        April 19, 1987- Nyagan in Siberia

HEIGHT                     6 feet

WEIGHT                    59 kg

COMPANION           travels with his father Yuri

COACH                      Michael Borach, Robert Lansdorp

BEGAN PLAYING    at the tender age of four

INTERESTS              fashion, singing, jazz, dancing- with her favourite movie being Pearl Harbour

ENJOYS                     Sherlock Holmes, Pippi Longstocking.

LIKING                      Russian music, food, loves deserts

PROMOTES              Cannon, Motorola, Parlor fragrance

TENNIS FACTFILE

2001                            Turned professional

2002                            Ends year ranked 186

2003                            Qualifies for the AUS OPEN, FRENCH OPEN, reaches fourth round at Wimbledon,

                                    moves up to 32 in the world.

2004                            Wins Wimbledon as no. 13 seed, becomes second youngest champion in open era after Martina Hingis.

                                    Beats Serena Williams at the WTA tour championships.

Ends the year as number four in the world.

Sharapova is the first Russian ever to win the end of season WTA Tour Championship and only the 15th player to do so since the event began in 1972.
 
WTA Championship victories by nation

Note: There were two WTA Tour Championship events in 1986.
Note: Martina Navratilova became a US citizen in 1981. Her first three WTA Championship wins therefore count for Czechoslovakia and the other five for the USA. Monica Seles became a US citizen in 1993 by which time she had won all her three WTA Championship titles. These are therefore grouped under Yugoslavia.
 
Maria Sharapova (RUS)

Grand Slam + WTA Championships results

Results this season

Note: Wins or defeats on a walkover are not included in the W-L column.
                       
Tournament Wins