Russian tennis great Maria Sharapova, 39, currently a successful entrepreneur, has revealed that she used her injuries and the time off court to prepare for life after retirement. 
  
“I recognised from an early age that as a woman, my career would end much sooner than in other professions, so I was like, ‘I’ve got to hustle. I’ve got to start learning from other people’,” Sharapova said in an interview with the WSJ Leadership Institute, an invitation-only network for senior leaders backed by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Dow Jones. Sharapova understood that her influential profile as a tennis champ (winner of five Grand Slams) offered her a wide platform beyond the sport. 

“Whenever I was injured, or had a break, I’d go to a business school, I’d take a few weeks. I would grow, I would take internships. I went to the NBA for a few weeks to shadow Adam Silver [NBA League Commissioner],” said Sharapova, who won her first Grand Slam title at 17, before announcing her tennis retirement in 2020, at 32. Before that though she had already launched her multi-million dollar candy brand, Sugarpova, in 2012.