Maria Sharapova (born 19 April 1987) is a Russian tennis player. She was born in Nyagan, Western Siberia, RSFSR. Her parents had moved from Belarus to protect themselves from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. The Sharapov family moved again in 1989, when Maria became interested in tennis, when watching her father play, and played tennis with a second-hand racquet. She would practice tennis by hitting the tennis ball against the wall every day, and her dad soon noticed that she was very good at the sport.