to Yuri and Yelena, ethnic  Belarusians , in the town of  Nyagan'  in  Siberia , Russia. Her parents moved from  Gomel ,  Belarus  after the  Chernobyl nuclear accident  in 1986 affected the region. [ 6 ]  When Sharapova was two, the family moved to  Sochi  where her father befriended Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son