MOSCOW (December 28, 2018): Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova has been included in the list of candidates for the national women’s tennis team for 2019, the press service of the Russian Sports Ministry reported on Friday.
The list of the national tennis team’s candidates for 2019 also includes Yekaterina Aleksandrova, Anna Blinkova, Elene Vesnina, Natalia Vikhlyantseva, Margarita Gasparyan, Irina Glimakova, Vitalia Dyachenko, Sofia Zhuk, Vera Zvonareva, Anna Kalinskaya, Yekaterina Kamenetskaya, Daria Kasatkina, Yekaterina Kirgizova, Veronika Kudermetova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Yekaterina Makarova, Polina Monova, Lyudmila Nikoyan, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Anastasia Potapova, Yevgeniya Rodina, Irina Khromacheva, Yulia Chubarova and Daria Churakova.
This year Maria Sharapova playing at the Grand Slam tournaments reached the third round of the Australian Open, the quarterfinals of the Roland-Garros in France, was knocked out in the opening round at the Wimbledon and reached the fourth round stage of the US Open.
Sharapova is one of worlds most liked tennis player and sports celebrity having won a total of five Grand Slam tournaments, namely the Australian Open in 2008, the French Open in 2012 and 2014, Wimbledon in 2004 and the US Open in 2006. She also won the silver in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and was the 2008 Federations Cup champion.