Claim: Maria Sharapova joined the WTA in 2001.

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova -LRB- Мари́я Ю́рьевна Шара́пова ; born April 19 , 1987 -RRB- is a Russian professional tennis player . A United States resident since 1994 , Sharapova has competed on the WTA tour since 2001 . She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions , for a total of 21 weeks . She is one of ten women , and the only Russian , to hold the career Grand Slam . She is also an Olympic medalist , having earned silver for Russia in women 's singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London .   Sharapova became the world No. 1 for the first time on August 22 , 2005 , at the age of 18 , and last held the ranking for the fifth time for four weeks from June 11 , 2012 , to July 8 , 2012 . Her 35 singles titles and five Grand Slam titles -- two at the French Open and one each at the Australian Open , Wimbledon , and US Open -- rank third among active players , behind Serena and Venus Williams . She won the year-ending WTA Finals in her debut in 2004 . She has also won three doubles titles .   Despite an injury-prone career , Sharapova has achieved a rare level of longevity in the women 's game . She won at least one singles title a year from 2003 until 2015 , a streak only bested by Steffi Graf , Martina Navratilova , and Chris Evert . Several tennis pundits and former players have called Sharapova one of tennis 's best competitors , with John McEnroe calling her one of the best the sport has ever seen .   Sharapova has been featured in a number of modeling assignments , including a feature in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue . She appeared in many advertisements , including those for Nike , Prince , and Canon , being the face of several fashion houses , most notably Cole Haan . Since February 2007 , she has been a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador , concerned specifically with the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme . In June 2011 , she was named one of the `` 30 Legends of Women 's Tennis : Past , Present and Future '' by Time and in March 2012 was named one of the `` 100 Greatest of All Time '' by Tennis Channel . According to Forbes , she has been named highest paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years and earned 285 million including prize money since she turned pro in 2001 .   In March 2016 , Sharapova revealed she had failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open on January 26 , 2016 . She had tested positive for meldonium , a substance that had been banned , effective January 1 , 2016 by the World Anti-Doping Agency -LRB- WADA -RRB- . On June 8 , 2016 , she was suspended from playing tennis for two years by the International Tennis Federation -LRB- ITF -RRB- . On October 4 , 2016 , the suspension was reduced to 15 months , starting from the date of the failed test . She returned to the WTA tour on April 26 , 2017 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix .