Book Review: Unstoppable - My Life So Far, by Maria Sharapova

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Introduction:

Author - Maria Sharapova

Genre - Non-fiction, Autobiography, Sports 

Language - English

About the Author:

Maria Sharapova is a Russian former professional tennis player. Although she played under the banner of Russia with the Women's Tennis Association, she has lived in and been a United States permanent resident since 1994. Born on 19 April 1987 (age34 years) Nyagan, Russia. Her Career ended on 26 February 2020. She won Grand slams 5-gram slams singles and retired on 26 February 2020.


About the Book:

The fiercely honest, fearless, darkly funny autobiography of global tennis star Maria Sharapova.

In the middle of the night, a father and his daughter step off a Greyhound bus in Florida and head straight to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. They ring the bell, though no one is expecting them and they don’t speak English. They have arrived from Russia with just seven hundred dollars and the conviction that this six-year-old girl will be the world’s next great tennis star. 

They are right. This is Maria Sharapova’s gripping and fearless autobiography, telling her story from her roots in the small Siberian town her parents fled to after the Chernobyl disaster, through her arrival in the US with nothing and her phenomenal rise to success – winning Wimbledon aged just seventeen – to the disasters that threatened her career and her fight back. 

Here the five-time Grand Slam winner gives us candid insights into her relationship with her father, who gave up his job and life in Russia to dedicate himself to his daughter; the truth behind her famous rivalry with Serena Williams; the injuries and suspension controversy that threatened to end it all; and her recent battle to get back on the court. 

Told with the same combative, no-holds-barred attitude as her game, it’s a story of crazy luck, mistakes, rivalries, sacrifice, survival, and, above all, the constant, unwavering determination to win.


Review:

‘Unstoppable: My Life So Far is an easy read and I got into this book right away. The first page shows a couple of pictures of Sharapova as a child before beginning with a prologue where she talks about her recent doping ban. 

It’s a brilliant start to the book as it explains the truth of the ban and makes you wonder if it should have happened at all. The prologue is brief and there is more on the ban in the last chapter of the book, with the rest of the story following in chronological order, beginning with Sharapova’s life in Gomel, Belarus.

The book has a really easy-to-read style making it feel as if Sharapova is chatting with you while telling you her life. Her early years before moving to the US are just fascinating to read and it gave me a sense of the strength and determination she has inside her. As the book progresses and details her life in America you begin to have a real sense of respect for her. 

I never knew the life she led, the difficulties she faced early on, and the conditions she and her father lived in. It all makes you feel real respect for her and I thought I would really enjoy the whole book from start to finish. But as Sharapova reveals the first information about Serena Williams, I did start to feel differently about her.

Although people who are not into tennis may enjoy this book there’s no explanation of how tennis games work and there’s a lot of descriptions around certain matches which may lose some people but I found it very interesting to read. 

I was never confused at any point during these chapters and it was good to hear how someone feels in the middle of the match, the thoughts and feelings they go through as you never really see when watching a tennis match as a spectator. In the last chapters, Sharapova details other aspects of her life. As a child, she speaks of few moments that go outside of the tennis life but in the last chapters, she starts to talk about relationships. 

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This is also an interesting part of her book and it was good to see more of her life outside of tennis. The last pages detail the ban again and the struggle she went through. It was good to hear more details of this and it did make me respect her a little more, however it was still hard to enjoy this book that much by the end given how Sharapova describes not only Williams but tennis relationships in general.

There is swearing in the book. There isn’t much in the first chapters but there is some use of the f and sword later on. The ending is good and I enjoyed reading the book as a whole. There’s a lot of detail of her early life and in these chapters, I found a newfound respect for Sharapova. 

It will certainly change your mind about her when you read about the difficult circumstances she had in her early life. I also found her easy-to-read style fun to read and I was gripped throughout some of her early life chapters. However, the digs at Williams, her explanations of friendships in tennis, and the overall feel of pettiness spoiled what could have been a really great read. 

Unstoppable is a well-written and heartfelt memoir which, as an avid tennis fan, I enjoyed immensely. I truly appreciate Sharapova for having the courage to open her heart to the public and speak very frankly about arguably the most difficult and emotionally consuming year she has experienced as a tennis player and public figure. 

I must admit that she grew on me both as an athlete and a mere human being and I am looking forward to seeing what she will be able to accomplish now that she resumed her tennis career. I found her autobiography unputdownable and I highly recommend it to those who love tennis just as much as I do, but also to the readers who are interested in an excellent and memorable autobiography/memoir.

My rating for the book - 4/5
You can easily buy a copy of this book from Amazon - Unstoppable

Written By - Ishita Sharma

Edited By - Anamika Malik