Some women are born to be envied. Maria Sharapova is one of them. The combination of blonde hair, blue eyes and graceful figure make the 19-year-old Russian a photographer's dream. It was inevitable that comparisons would be drawn to her compatriot Anna Kournikova, another Russian blonde bombshell,  but the similarities end there. Make no mistake, Maria is a world class tennis player with two Grand Slams under the belt already.

>From humble beginnings in Siberia, the teenage Sharapova has come a long way. Less than three years after turning professional she claimed her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon and won the prestigious WTA Season-Ending Championships. Not bad for a girl aged just seventeen. In the two years since, she has crushed the doubters who suggested she would remain a one-slam wonder by winning the US Open last month.

Maria`s rise to fame filled plenty of column inches following her Wimbledon triumph. She was just six years old when tennis legend Martina Navratilova saw her potential at a tennis clinic in Moscow. Two years later, Maria and her father Yuri moved to America with less than $1000 in their pockets.  She enrolled at the Nick Bollittieri academy in Florida, which has honed the games of stars such as Andre Agassi and Monica Seles. There, she was forced to show a maturity which belied her tender age. The older girls in her dorm often made fun of her but Maria maintains that she has always been mentally strong enough to cope with such adversity. Yuri worked three jobs to pay for his daughter's tennis tuition. He has been handsomely rewarded for his efforts. These days, Maria is the highest-paid sportswomen in the world.

The family undoubtedly made a huge gamble in moving to America, but the risk quickly paid off. Maria turned professional in 2002. A year later she had won WTA titles in Tokyo and Quebec. A promising starlet had emerged.

Her breakthrough year proved to be 2004. She reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the French Open and won WTA Birmingham, a Wimbledon warm-up event, pushing her into the top 15, but few people would have predicted what came next. Almost everyone, including the so-called tennis experts, were stunned when she defeated defending champion Serena Williams in straight sets in the Wimbledon final. The fantasy became reality.

Speaking after Wimbledon, Maria said "I've taken my confidence from Wimbledon." The self-confidence is obvious just from watching her. She maintains a relentless belief in herself,  a quality that allows her to tough out matches she probably has no business of winning. Those who knew her from the start were always convinced that she was something special, but even Maria herself was surprised that her success came so quickly : "It's amazing. I'm absolutely speechless, never in my life did I expect it to happen so fast. It was always my dream to come here and win but I never thought it would be this year."