Goodbye, tennis: Sharapova announces retirement
Paris: Five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, one of the world's most recognisable sportswomen, on Wednesday announced her retirement at the age of 32.
"Tennis - I'm saying goodbye," Sharapova said in an article for Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines.
"After 28 years and five Grand Slam titles, though, I'm ready to scale another mountain - to compete on a different type of terrain."
Sharapova burst onto the scene as a supremely gifted teenager and won her Grand Slams before serving a 15-month ban for failing a drugs test at the 2016 Australian Open.
The Russian former world number one's ranking is currently 373rd.
Sharapova has hardly played in the past year because of long-standing shoulder problems.
When she did play she lost as many matches as she won and was dumped out in the first rounds at Wimbledon, the US Open and, most recently, the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Sharapova shot to fame as a giggly 17-year-old Wimbledon winner in 2004, the third-youngest player to conquer the All England Club's hallowed grass courts.
- 'Tennis gave me life' -
She became world number one in 2005 and won the US Open the next year.
"One of the keys to my success was that I never looked back and I never looked forward," Sharapova said on Wednesday.
"I believed that if I kept grinding and grinding, I could push myself to an incredible place."
But in 2007 Sharapova began her long on-off battle with shoulder trouble.
She would win the 2008 Australian Open before a second shoulder injury kept her off tour for the second half of the season, missing the US Open and Beijing Olympics.
In 2012, the Siberian-born Sharapova captured the French Open to become the 10th woman to complete a career Grand Slam. She added Olympic silver to her resume that year.
Her 2014 French Open title was another high after a dispiriting injury low.
More fitness troubles followed before the bombshell announcement of her positive test for the banned heart drug meldonium.
Always a fighter -- the seven-year-old Maria and father Yuri left for the US in 1994 with just a borrowed 700 to their names -- Sharapova returned to the sport in 2017.
"In giving my life to tennis, tennis gave me a life," Sharapova said in her retirement missive.
"I'll miss it everyday. I'll miss the training and my daily routine: Waking up at dawn, lacing my left shoe before my right, and closing the court's gate before I hit my first ball of the day.
"I'll miss my team, my coaches. I'll miss the moments sitting with my father on the practice court bench. The handshakes - win or lose - and the athletes, whether they knew it or not, who pushed me to be my best.
"Looking back now, I realize that tennis has been my mountain. My path has been filled with valleys and detours, but the views from its peak were incredible."
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CSK's Ayush Mhatre ruled out of remainder of IPL 2026 due to hamstring injury
New Delhi (PTI): Chennai Super Kings batter Ayush Mhatre has been ruled out of the remainder of the ongoing IPL season due to a hamstring injury, dealing a major blow to the five-time champions.
The franchise said Mhatre, who sustained the injury during CSK’s previous game against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 18, will require a rehabilitation period of six to 12 weeks.
"Ayush Mhatre has been ruled out of the remainder of IPL 2026 due to a left hamstring injury sustained while batting during the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 18.
"Ayush's injury will require a rehabilitation period of 6-12 weeks," CSK announced on its social media on Tuesday.
The 18-year-old, who came in as an impact substitute, was seen in visible discomfort and clutched his hamstring while attempting a run during CSK’s 10-run loss to SRH in Hyderabad.
He required on-field treatment and, although he continued briefly, was dismissed soon after.
"It looks pretty bad, unfortunately. And he's going to be a big, big loss because he's been in really nice touch for us," CSK's batting coach Mike Hussey had said at the post-match press conference.
Mhatre has been CSK's standout batter this season. He lea collecting 201 runs from six matches at a strike-rate of 177.87.
Chennai Super Kings have endured a poor start to the 2026 season, losing four of their six matches to languish in eighth place.
