Unstoppable
My Life So Far
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4.6 • 85 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From the five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, the candid, captivating story of her rise to tennis stardom.
*One of The Boston Globe's Best Books of 2017*
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. The two have arrived from Russia with only seven hundred dollars and the conviction that this six-year-old will be the next tennis star. Amazingly, they are right.
Young Maria Sharapova went on to win Wimbledon at just seventeen years old, in an astonishing upset against the reigning champion Serena Williams—the match that kicked off their legendary rivalry and placed Sharapova on the international stage. At eighteen, she reached the number one WTA ranking for the first time, and has held that ranking many times since. In this gripping autobiography, the five-time Grand Slam winner recounts the story of her phenomenal rise to success, narrated with the same no-holds-barred, fiercely provocative attitude that characterizes her tennis game.
Full of thrilling, insightful episodes from her beginnings in Siberia, from career-defining games, and from her recent fight to get back on the court, Unstoppable is an inspiring tale of persistence, pulsing with fearlessness and candor. Sharapova’s is an utterly unforgettable story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this insightful memoir, 30-year-old tennis star Sharapova details her life from her earliest memories to the present day. Her father, Yuri, whisked six-year-old Maria from Russia to Florida because of her tennis skills, at tennis star Martina Navratilova's suggestion: "Your daughter can play; you need to get her out of the country to a place where she can develop her game." What ensued for Maria was a life lived on tennis courts either playing in tournaments or toiling in academies partially funded by whatever work Yuri could find. Maria excelled quickly, though at the cost of a typical childhood. After winning Wimbledon at 17, she entered another isolated sphere, one of celebrity and its trappings. "In short," she writes, "winning fucks you up." She is similarly blunt when discussing how to lose and her rivalry with Serena Williams, whom Sharapova discovered bawling after Sharapova beat her at Wimbledon in 2004 ("I think she hated me for seeing her at her lowest moment"). Sharapova's eloquent self-awareness provides a rare glimpse into the disorienting push and pull of a famous athlete's life. "I know you want us to love this game us loving it makes it more fun to watch," she writes. "But we don't love it. And we don't hate it. It just is, and always has been." 16 pages of full-color photos.
Customer Reviews
Great Book
Thanks for this book I really learn a lot from you and the game, love the way you described a lot of events. Definitely my
Money well invested on this book
Loved it!
Recommend!
Unstoppable
Excellent book. Wonderful autobiography about a true, honest athlete and seemingly wonderful person.