Five Years Into Retirement, Maria Sharapova is Not Only Still a Rocket, She's a Business Mogul Who's Practically Printing Money

Joe Buglewicz. Getty Images.

[Ben Kenobi voice] Maria Sharapova. Now that's a name I've not heard for a looonggg time. 

In fact, the last time I can find the former dominant athlete in her sport even mentioned on Barstool was when she retired from Tennis in the final days just before Covid ended the world for two weeks several months. 

Here's what I wrote:

Maria Sharapova hit the tennis circuit in 2003, which was right around the time Anna Kournikova's career transitioned from "Promising Tennis Star" to "Full Time Model Who Dates Russian Hockey Players and Enrique Eglesias." It's hard for you guys in your 20s to full appreciate how huge Kournikova was back then. In the days that were pre-smartphone but Google image search was already king, she was the crossover It Girl of the sports world. With posters in every high schooler's room and her face on the cover of every fourth issue of Maxim.

Phil Cole. Getty Images.

What Anna never did was actually win any singles event in her chosen sport. So there was a natural assumption that Maria Sharapova was going to be more of the same. A blonde Russian with movie star charm and the looks of a model in a moisturizer commercial, but who wasn't packing the gear to be an actual winner. 

Fortunately, she wasted no time dispelling that doubt. In 2004 at Wimbledon, she defeated defending champ and top seed Serena Williams in what the Washington Post called "the most stunning upset in memory." And kicked off what everyone called "Maria Mania." The next year she went to No. 1 and went on to four more Grand Slam titles and became a staple of the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. As well as making People's list of the "50 Most Beautiful Celebrities," Maxim's "Hottest Athlete in the World" four straight years, and FHM's list of "Most Eligible Bachelorettes." As well as a spread in SI's Swimsuit Issue.

But unfortunately for her and all of us, injuries took their toll. She's been ranked somewhere in the low 300s worldwide and there's no coming back for her. Because time and tide waiteth for no man. Or woman. She's onto a life focused on her business interests and charity work.

Which brings us to October of 2025, and how those "business interests" have panned out. And the answer is "astonishingly well":

Source - For millions of tennis fans used to watching a dazzlingly blonde Maria Sharapova see off her opponents on Centre Court, it must have been a shock to see the former tennis player, now naturally brunette, feature as part of Bloomberg's Power Players Conference in New York last month. …

But Sharapova - whose net worth was last estimated as being close to $220million by Forbes - arguably created the blueprint for diversified success and is one of the standard bearers for a particular type of lucrative sporting retirement. 

Sharapova set the highest of bars during her career with respect to endorsements [and] is believed to have raked in a staggering $300m from off-court earnings during that period alone. …

But while many athletes would be happy to rest on their laurels and watch passive income flood their bursting bank accounts, Sharapova has enjoyed a more profitable second act. 

Not for nothing did she study management and leadership at Harvard Business School during her enforced hiatus [for PEDs] in 2016. Nowadays, Sharapova is almost more recognisable as an unusually savvy investor and entrepreneur, albeit one with a career Grand Slam. …

'I'm very selective in the rooms that I go into,' Sharapova added. 

She picked the right room. In 2021, Supergoop! was acquired by investment management behemoth Blackstone for a staggering $750m. …

Sharapova's choices are usually women-centric or have an angle which lends itself to her on-court background. … [E]gg-freezing start-up Cofertility goes one step further. 

'Women's sport is having an incredible moment,' Sharapova told Vogue upon announcing her investment last August. …

'If they can prolong their career on their own terms by freezing their eggs at a younger age, they'll perhaps have the time to compete at the highest level for longer, have the time to decide on their partner, and not rush into a relationship for whatever reason.'

So part of her money is invested in giving athletes not at all unlike herself the chance to dominate their sport, and then still be able to breed a genetically superior race of younger athletes to grow up and dominate their sports. It's not only ingenious, it's got to be profitable, since her clientele can afford the very best treatment as well as the most desirable sperm donors.  

But in general, this is what you hope to see from a great athlete who was forced to retire young. That they're able to move on from the fame and the adulation, and find another thing to be successful at. To prove to the world and themselves that they're not just the jock-turned-swimsuit model they were assumed to be. But a well-rounded person who can thrive in whatever environment they choose for themselves. And she has clearly learned to take over the boardroom like she did the court. 

And that life for her didn't peak when she was playing and modeling:

Her peak is only just getting started. 

All hail to the Queen.