Ex-Wimbledon star Maria Sharapova looks completely unrecognisable since retiring

A former Wimbledon champion has drastically altered her look since calling time on her professional tennis career back in 2020. Maria Sharapova was one of the world’s most recognisable athletes in her heyday but has opted to make a significant change to her appearance following her retirement after the Australian Open three years ago.

The 36-year-old has ditched her famous blonde locks and now sports a much darker brunette colour, which she chose to show off at the Monaco Grand Prix earlier this year. She posed for a series of snaps that were shared to her Instagram account, showing the full extent of her transformation since walking away from professional tennis.

Sharapova also uploaded pictures from last month’s Cannes Lions film festival as well as a holiday at Lake Como in Italy. She was crowned the world’s hottest athlete for four straight years between 2003 and 2006 and it seems as though her 4.3 million followers on the platform have not been deterred by her striking new look nearly two decades later.

The former world No 1 has embarked on a number of business ventures in the years following her retirement and is now on the board of directors at Italian fashion house Moncler. She has also acted as an advisor to brands like Naked Retail and Bright and previously co-founded her own confectionery brand named Sugarpova back in 2012.

Sharapova has also gone into motherhood after giving birth to her son, Theodore, in July of last year. She was once widely considered to have been one of the most marketable athletes in world sport, with the Russian earning over £31m in prize money over the course of her career as well as hundreds of millions through sponsorship deals and brand endorsements.

She previously opened up on the way she manages her life after tennis by revealing that she usually takes things one day at a time, often writing small lists of her jobs that need doing with the aim of staying productive away from the court. High-quality sleep also takes paramount importance for Sharapova, who has carried over much of her daily routine from the one she followed while travelling around the world to play tennis.

“I feel like we want to place ourselves in all these different buckets,” Sharapova told Glamour Magazine a year after playing her final match in 2020. “I like to set those goals and those buckets can be as easy as thinking, ‘okay, today I have my small to-do list. I want to spend time with my family, I want to get my work done, I want to take care of my body’.

“But it always starts with myself. ‘How am I feeling? Am I energised? Am I fresh? What is my body lacking?’. And a good night’s sleep, I think that the following day begins when you have a good night’s sleep.

“I learned that with my sport because when you travel around the world, you face jet lag and different conditions and heat waves from the summer to the winter. You never know where you’re going to be playing and how your body’s going to react during the day. I’ve carried all those routines post-retirement, because they really help in my everyday life. I feel fresh.”

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