Every even-numbered year starting in 2004, so-called “Russian” tennis player Maria Sharapova has won a grand slam title, with the exception of 2010. That was Maria’s first serious year back on tour after shoulder surgery for a torn rotator cuff in late 2008. In 2010 she didn’t make it past the fourth round in any grand slam event and was ejected from the Australian Open in the first round.
But in 2004, she won Wimbledon.
In 2006, the U.S. Open.
In 2008, the Australian Open.
And in 2012, she completed the career grand slam, winning the French Open.
Maria’s four grand-slam wins were characterized by some of the most freakish good luck in the annals of tennis history.
At Wimbledon, Sharapova defeated Serena Williams, a player against whom she has recorded only two victories in her entire career. And one of those was in a grand-slam final?! In fact, Sharapova should never have reached the finals that year, because she was being destroyed by Lindsey Davenport in their semi-finals match when play was suspended by rain. After the delay, Davenport was a different player. At the U.S. Open, Sharapova defeated Justine Henin, a player against whom she has only recorded three victories in her entire career.
Even though Williams and Henin are two of the greatest players to step on the court, neither grand-slam finals contests against Sharapova was competitive. Both victories were in straight sets and neither opponent was able to win more than four games in any of the four sets contested.
Sharapova’s two slam wins in the later part of career, by contrast, came against extremely weak competition. At the Australian Open, Sharapova defeated Ana Ivanovic, a player who has never won a grand-slam title and who has won only two career matches against Sharapova. And at the French Open, Sharapova defeated a player, Sara Errani, who was not even seeded in the tournament’s top 20 and who has never once prevailed against Sharapova in her career, much less won a grand-slam title. Here again, the matches were totally non-competitive.
Of course, one can point out that many matches played by Williams were non-competitive too, perhaps trying to claim that Sharapova was simply a great player. But that would be a hopeless endeavor. Sharapova’s woeful record against Williams (and Henin) shows that conclusively. Since losing to Sharapova in 2004, Williams has never lost a match to Sharapova and has dropped a set only three times in twelve contests. After losing to Sharapova at the U.S. Open, Henin ran of a streak of four straight wins, dropping a set only once.
Serena Williams holds fifteen grand slam titles and Justine Henin holds seven. With just four, Sharapova isn’t worthy of being mentioned in the same breath with these two titans, and her career head-to-head record against them bears that out. Sharapova was simply amazing lucky to catch both in grand slam finals on extremely bad days.
Why refer to Sharapova as a “so-called” Russian? Well, she doesn’t live in Russia, and hasn’t since she was a child. She lives in the United States, where she learned how to play tennis from American teachers. She hardly ever even visits Russia. So she’s a Russian in name only.
The Greatest Tennis Players of All Time 
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