Unstoppable - by Maria Sharapova

Book Review and Recommendation: By Brent Herrick

An Honest Memoir

You’ll likely never meet Maria Sharapova and neither will I.  That’s okay, because in this book she talks to you like a confidant, a friend.  She speaks to the reader.   This is one of the more natural memoirs that I’ve read and by the end it is hard not to like her and her father, and even some of the characters she mentions.  Rather than the ice cold fighter on the court that many of us know, we see the other side.  Though I was a Sharapova fan long before this, now I am on her team and you may find yourself  there too.  Before I read this book I was already happy to hear her suspension was lifted so she could begin competing again.  Now, having learned the details and believing them fully I think she was ripped off.  Bureaucrats that maybe never held a racket decided her fate and thankfully some more balanced justice prevailed in the end.  So now let’s talk about her book in detail.

This is a tennis book worth reading if you’re a tennis player and want to learn not only the psychology of a champion but also to get some inside perspective on the effort and lifestyle of a professional tennis player.  Add to this that Sharapova is a distant dream for both men and women.   She’s tall with all the classical features of beauty that are hardened into a princess warrior whose weapon of choice is a tennis racket.  She likes to fight.  As a mortal we can’t even approach an understanding of this but rather just stand back in awe seeing her cold and steel stares during play match confirmed our thoughts that she is a relentless competitor.

Turning Pro and the Life

" A pro athlete really dies twice.(Pg 162)”  Here you learn from the transitional phase of her tennis career  that she finally gains some understandings that challenge her as much as of those on court struggles.  It was her coming of age as a pro.  She helps you understand that much of her life was moving in this direction and now here it is.  She has arrived and a new person emerges.

Sharapova explains that her normal demeanor toward an opponent is revenge.  Someone has done her wrong even if they haven’t simply by being on the other side of the net.  She plays through the match in a battle glazed focus of anger tempered by concentration.  By Sharapova telling us this similar truth about herself I now understand what makes watching her play so compelling.  She isn’t just a tennis player, she is a warrior.  This is single combat and her desire to destroy the opponent comes with the territory.

Add to that something as basic and perfect as her anger about something purely from a woman’s perspective and you have the elements of a bitter struggle for survival out on the tennis court.  Were it not done across a net this would have the same elements of a “girl fight.”  She talked of her match with Hantuchova who happened to wear the same Nike dress the day she played her at Wimbledon.  It’s bad enough this opponent has to stand in her way to the next round, but she is actually wearing the same dress.  She must be sent packing.  I found myself laughing at this part of the book.  I remained smiling for a long time just thinking about this unknown moment to the rest of the world.  I would like to see that match on film just to now enjoy knowing this.

Another big revelation from the book is her relationship with Serena.  They aren’t friends and by most standards are beyond mere opponents.  After Maria beat Serena to win Wimbledon the rivalry was on and Maria  acknowledges that she has only beat Serena twice out of close to twenty matches.  Maria shares a locker room moment between her and Serena that I won’t spoil but is essential in your understanding of their rivalry.

Her Personal Life

Then there is Juan Carlos Ferrero.  Sharapova admits she had a crush on him.  This is the side of her as a reader and fan or spectator you can really enjoy.  She is human after all.  It’s hard to see the person when you are limited by their performance on the court that even there is limited to you by the distance of watching on a TV screen.  This among other secrets she shared has humanized her as much as anything.  Juan Carlos, now just the name will make me smile.   Of course she was much younger than him and she gives him great credit for being a gentleman and very kind to a young girl with a crush.  

I read this book in an unusual fashion.  I started right around the place where she began training with Robert Lansdorp.  By doing so, I missed the essential part of Maria Sharapova and her father Yuri.  From that point forward you think of the Maria you have known on TV as a will of steel competitor with a shield of invincibility around her for protection.  Later I came back to reread it from the beginning and it was fascinating to learn that the Ice Princess I so admired on the court had such disadvantages and struggles to overcome to reach the place she did in professional tennis.  Her father is amazing in his dedication to her and it is nice to know she still has a great relationship with him. 

Insights 

Read the book and you’ll not only learn many things about the life of a tennis champion, but you will learn to like Maria Sharapova in a way you never thought you might.  Also, prepare yourself for some cursing like a sailor in many places in the book but most of us know that such is what often exists out there in the real world.  Maria Sharapova is real and amazingly forthcoming and honest in this book.  It gave me a new perspective on her and professional tennis.


***** Five Stars - Highly Recommend

(I don’t give out five stars very often but the honesty of this book rates it as well as the value it will have in future players that need to know what it takes to get to the top.  It is superb reading and a great information resource.)