How Maria Sharapova built a second empire — from candy brand to Harvard classroom, from humanitarian ambassador to investor — long before tennis was over, and thriving still.
Launched at the US Open; now sold in luxury stores and airports across 30+ countries.
Total estimated earnings from brand partnerships over her career — one of the highest ever for a female athlete.
"Unstoppable: My Life So Far" — a candid, bestselling account of sacrifice, glory, and resilience.
Completed the Owner/President Management program at Harvard Business School post-retirement.
Named Athlete Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme for her humanitarian work.
Forbes named Sharapova the world's highest-earning female athlete for 11 consecutive years.
When Maria Sharapova arrived at the 2012 US Open, she carried with her not just her racket but the debut product of her own candy company: Sugarpova. The line of premium gummy bears, lollipops, and confectionery was launched with characteristic Sharapova boldness — directly at one of the world's most-watched sporting events.
The brand identity was playful and distinctly hers: bright packaging, witty slogans ("Racy," "Flirty," "Cheeky," "Sweet"), and a sense of fun that contrasted with the steely competitor the world knew from the court. Sharapova was the creative director as much as the name on the wrapper — she had genuine input on flavours, packaging design, and marketing strategy from the start.
One of the more memorable publicity stunts of the launch: Sharapova announced she had applied to the ITF to temporarily rename herself "Sugarpova" for the duration of the US Open, adding the word to her tournament entry forms. The ITF declined the request, but the story generated global headlines that money could not have bought.
Sugarpova products are stocked in upscale department stores, duty-free airport outlets, and select luxury grocers worldwide. The brand has expanded into new product lines, seasonal collections, and international markets far beyond its New York debut.
Sharapova built the company through a deliberate, methodical approach — the same discipline she applied to tennis. Rather than licensing her name and stepping back, she remained actively involved in product development and expansion strategy, treating the business as a competitive pursuit with the same intensity she brought to Grand Slam finals.
"I did not want a passive business where I just put my name on someone else's product. I wanted to build something I actually believed in, something that reflected who I am beyond tennis."
— Maria Sharapova on SugarpovaOver a career spanning two decades, Sharapova attracted some of the world's most coveted sponsorship deals — earning an estimated $200 million-plus from endorsements alone.
One of the most prominent and enduring partnerships in women's sports — Nike outfitted Sharapova throughout most of her career with co-designed collections.
Named as a Porsche Brand Ambassador, a prestigious association that extended into her post-tennis life and included the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix as headline sponsor.
The Swiss luxury watchmaker partnered with Sharapova, reflecting her appeal across fashion, sport, and lifestyle markets globally.
Global technology ambassador during the height of the smartphone era, featuring in major campaigns across Asia, Europe, and North America.
Partnership with Canon reinforced Sharapova's appeal to a global, aspirational consumer audience in multiple markets.
The premium French water brand was a fitting partner for the health-conscious, performance-driven Sharapova brand persona.
Sharapova played with HEAD rackets throughout her career, making HEAD Graphene a globally recognised product on the WTA Tour.
A significant early partnership that expanded Sharapova's profile in the beauty and cosmetics space and reached millions of consumers worldwide.
"I never let my ranking determine which brands I associated with. I chose partnerships that aligned with who I was — not just what I had won."
— Maria SharapovaAccording to Forbes, Sharapova was the world's highest-earning female athlete for 11 consecutive years. At her peak, she earned more than $25 million per year — the vast majority from endorsements rather than prize money. Her total career endorsement earnings are estimated to exceed $200 million, placing her in a category shared by only a handful of athletes in history.
The secret was not merely her tennis success, but her understanding of brand. She knew exactly what her image communicated — excellence, elegance, toughness, beauty, determination — and she curated her commercial relationships accordingly. Long before "personal branding" became a business school curriculum, Sharapova was practising it with precision.
Published in October 2017 by Sarah Crichton Books, "Unstoppable: My Life So Far" is the memoir that Sharapova's supporters and critics alike had been waiting for. It arrived at a moment of unusual vulnerability — just six months after her return from a fifteen-month doping ban, while her career and reputation were still being rebuilt.
The book is characterised by a candour unusual in sports memoirs. Sharapova does not gloss over the difficult chapters. She writes honestly about her seven-year-old self arriving in Bradenton, Florida, with a father who had $700 in his pocket and a dream that seemed impossibly ambitious. She describes the loneliness of spending eighteen months at the academy without her mother, who could not obtain a US visa.
The teenage years at Bollettieri's academy are rendered with remarkable clarity — the gruelling daily schedules, the internal politics of junior tennis, the moment she began to believe she could win Grand Slams. Her account of the 2004 Wimbledon final, at age seventeen, is one of the book's most gripping passages.
The meldonium chapter drew particular attention. Rather than minimising or deflecting, Sharapova addresses it with directness, accepting responsibility while providing the full context that the press conference in March 2016 could not accommodate. It is the work of someone who had genuinely reflected on events rather than simply prepared a media strategy.
The memoir received strong reviews for its honesty and Sharapova's voice — sharp, self-aware, and occasionally funny. Sports Illustrated called it "one of the most revealing sports memoirs in years." It became a New York Times bestseller, adding author to a growing list of Sharapova's credentials.
"Tennis was never all of me. I always knew there was something else — something bigger, something more durable. The book was my chance to say that, and to say it in my own words."
— Maria Sharapova, "Unstoppable" press tour, 2017Following her retirement from professional tennis in February 2020, Sharapova enrolled in Harvard Business School's Owner/President Management (OPM) program — an intensive Executive Education course designed for high-level business founders and executives from around the world. She graduated in 2021.
The OPM program is one of the most selective at Harvard. Participants are typically CEOs, company founders, and senior executives with a track record of leadership. Sharapova entered not as a famous name seeking a celebrity certificate, but as a legitimate business owner with a confectionery brand, a foundation, and years of entrepreneurial experience to draw on and develop.
In interviews, Sharapova described the experience as transformational. She sat alongside executives from industries she had never encountered, heard case studies that broadened her understanding of global commerce, and challenged assumptions she had formed as a solo decision-maker. The competitive instincts she had refined over twenty years on the tennis tour, it turned out, translated naturally to the seminar room.
"I approach business the same way I approached tennis," she told one interviewer after graduating. "I want to win. I want to understand every dimension of the game I'm playing. Harvard showed me how much more there was to understand."
The OPM program was a natural fit: it teaches entrepreneurial leadership, financial thinking, and operational strategy — precisely the skills required to scale Sugarpova, manage investments, and structure her expanding business interests.
Sharapova has described the business world as a new kind of competition — one with different scoring but the same fundamental demand: preparation, discipline, and the willingness to absorb defeat and come back stronger.
Maria Sharapova established her foundation with a mission that is personal, rooted in her own family history: supporting children affected by some of the world's most severe environmental and humanitarian crises, beginning with the ongoing impact of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Sharapova's father Yuri had emigrated from Belarus — one of the countries most severely affected by Chernobyl's radioactive fallout. The disaster continues to affect health outcomes for children in contaminated regions of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia decades later. The foundation provides educational grants, health support, and development opportunities to young people in these communities.
The work is not ceremonial. Sharapova has personally visited beneficiary communities, engaged with grant recipients, and shaped programme design. She has spoken publicly about the connection between her father's experience and her drive to give back to the region her family left behind.
In recognition of her humanitarian contributions, Sharapova was named an Athlete Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) — one of a small number of elite athletes to hold this position. The UN role extended her platform to global development issues beyond Chernobyl, using her international profile to draw attention to causes that struggle to reach mainstream audiences.
Maria's father Yuri was from Belarus and left the region in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. This history gave the foundation a deeply personal dimension — Sharapova's philanthropy is not a PR exercise but an expression of family memory and obligation.
Children in contaminated zones continue to face elevated health risks and limited educational opportunity. The foundation's grants aim to provide pathways that geography and history have otherwise denied them.
"My father left Belarus with almost nothing. He carried all the risk so that I could have a chance. Through the foundation, I am trying to give other children in that region a chance — not to play tennis, but simply to have one."
— Maria Sharapova on the Sharapova FoundationBeyond Sugarpova, Sharapova has been active in the technology, beauty, and wellness investment space — areas where she has both consumer insight and a platform to amplify brands. She has spoken in interviews about her interest in companies that operate at the intersection of performance, aesthetics, and wellbeing: markets she understands intimately from her own career as a professional athlete.
Her approach to investment mirrors her approach to tennis: rigorous preparation, selective commitment, and a refusal to be passive. She has described sitting in product development meetings, reviewing financial models, and pushing founders on their assumptions — an engagement level that goes well beyond cheque-writing.
The Harvard Business School program sharpened the analytical toolkit she brought to these conversations. Where once her instincts had been purely intuitive — recognising a compelling product or a gap in the market — she now applied structured frameworks: unit economics, competitive positioning, scalability, customer acquisition cost. The combination of competitive instinct and business school rigour has proved a distinctive advantage.
In the beauty and wellness sector specifically, Sharapova's credibility is substantial. As one of the most photographed athletes of her era — present in luxury brand campaigns, fashion publications, and lifestyle media for two decades — she understands beauty marketing from both the creator and consumer side. Her investment decisions in this space are informed by a lived understanding that most capital allocators simply do not have.
"I approach business the same way I approached tennis — I want to win. But in business, unlike tennis, the game never ends. You don't win the tournament and walk away. You keep competing, keep adapting, keep finding new ways to score."
This philosophy — total commitment, active participation, and long-term thinking — has shaped every business decision she has made since launching Sugarpova in 2012.
Maria Sharapova announced her retirement from professional tennis on February 26, 2020, through essays published simultaneously in Vogue and Vanity Fair — media choices that spoke to the breadth of her world beyond sport. The opening line became instantly iconic in tennis history.
The shoulder injury that had first required surgery in 2008 never fully healed. A career of elite-level serving — among the most powerful in the women's game — had extracted its toll. By 2019, she could no longer compete at the standard she demanded of herself. For Sharapova, second place had never been the goal.
Retiring at 32, with five Grand Slams and a second career already well established, was not a defeat but a choice — one made on her own terms, announced in two of the world's most-read publications.
Sharapova settled in Los Angeles after retirement — a city that suited her dual identity as athlete-turned-entrepreneur. The LA base puts her close to the entertainment industry, the tech investment ecosystem, and the wellness and beauty brands she works with.
She remains active in brand consulting, continues to develop Sugarpova's international footprint, and oversees foundation activities. The competitive engine that drove her tennis career has found new circuits to run on.
"Tennis showed me the world and what I am capable of. It showed me the highest peaks and the most gruelling valleys. It put me where I am today, and I am grateful for every minute of it — the wins, the losses, the surgeries, even the suspension. All of it made me."
— Maria Sharapova, retirement essay, February 2020The first female athlete to earn $200M+ in career endorsements; demonstrated that women's sport could command elite commercial partnerships on its own terms.
Harvard Business School graduate in her first year of retirement; showed that elite athletic discipline transfers directly to academic and intellectual endeavour.
Featured on over 100 magazine covers; a presence in fashion, luxury, and lifestyle media that extended far beyond sport and continues post-retirement.