‘Being Better Than Who’s Across the Net’ – Maria Sharapova on How Andre Agassi’s Golden Advice Influenced Her Career

Maria Sharapova has been a decorated player for a long time in women’s tennis history. In a 2-decade long career, the Russian not only won 5 Grand Slams but also held the top spot in the WTA rankings. Turning pro in 2011, Sharapova won a total of 36 singles titles, before finally announcing her retirement in 2020.

In her gracious career, the 34-year-old was coached by some of the biggest coaches of the sport. However, even after being trained by the best of the best coaches, she still feels that she received career-changing advice from American legend Andre Agassi. Recently, Sharapova appeared on a podcast. In the podcast, she recalled Agassi’s advice while answering a question.

Agassi’s influential advice for Sharapova

Participating in Big Questions with Cal Fussman, Sharapova was asked to give her views on the confidence a tennis player has when beating someone on the court. Sharapova gave the answer with complete grace. However, what came as a highlight was the advice given to to her by Agassi.

Answering the question, Sharapova gave her views on whether it is important to be the best player every single day. She said, “At the end of each day, it’s not that you have to be the best player every single day.”

Wanting to elaborate further on her point, she mentioned Agassi’s advice. “This was what Andre Agassi said constantly, was that it’s all about being better than who’s across the net. You can be magnificent that day, but maybe you don’t need that. Maybe you just need an okay level to get through the day. It’s whatever gets you to the match point and that victory,” she said.

“It was an interesting perspective from him that I always thought about,” she further added.

Maria Sharapova on the feeling of winning

Maria Sharapova has undoubtedly been a successful player on the tour. Apart from the WTA tour and the Grand Slam titles, Sharapova is also an Olympic silver medalist. Statistically, in her 20-year-long career, Sharapova had an impressive 645/171 Win/Loss record to her name. Taking all those factors into consideration, it wouldn’t be wrong to say Sharapova has been familiar with the feeling of winning.

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Sharing the feeling during the podcast, she said, “I love the feeling of winning. There’s one thing about sport is being in that moment of victory. It’s so sudden and it’s so quick, no matter how prepared you are, you could be very young or you could be older. No matter how well prepared or unprepared you have come to that event, the moment of victory still catches you by surprise.”

Sharapova post-retirement

After announcing her retirement from tennis in 220, the athlete has been extremely occupied with her ventures. In 2012, Sharapova launched her own line of chocolates and candies by the name of ‘Sugarpova’. Rising rapidly, the company in 2019 clocked a total sale of $20 million. Apart from Sugarpova, Sharapova has also been busy with her endorsement commitments with a number of top brands.

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