A really interesting read not just for sports or tennis fans. This book looks at Maria’s childhood growing up near Chernobyl and the incredible drive and intensity she had to succeed. It’s a look at the person behind the image seen on tv or fighting tooth and nail for every game, set and match!

To (ab)use a cliche from football, or soccer for some of you, this is a book of two halves. Actually, it had a lot of areas of duality and but most are a lot less even than the main divide - when Sharapova turned professional. Her Wimbledon victory occurs pretty much exactly halfway through the book and it also changed the tone of the story quite a bit.

So let's start at the beginning, because it's generally a very good place to start. To say this book starts early in her life is an understatement. I mean, we didn't get birth details or learning to walk but she was on her path to tennis stardom by the age of 4 so we really don't miss much of her life. The book has a very slight vagueness to it too though, which means when you first read about her training on courts in Sochi and the like you could easily believe she was much older than she really was. She suddenly drops the age bombshell randomly to remind you just how young you start to become a success in a sport like tennis.

It's all quite interesting. She tells of her father taking her to the US for tennis training. The curious world of these children's tennis camps where coaches charge rich families to support the scholarships for the natural talents. There is the obligatory cautionary tale of a shark trying to exploit the naive immigrants. Also a number of tales of good luck too. That captures some of the bubble Sharapova has grown up in really. Yes, she had the cliched humble start which we love, but at times she seems somewhat oblivious to the good fortune she and her father fell upon in these early days. That's not to say they didn't work hard to succeed, just that not everyone's school of hard knocks involves millionaires offering rooms to live in and other good fortunes. Curiously, I find the bubble somewhat refreshing. At times it feels that admitting someone had any luck or a headstart in life is something shameful. Some people like to rewrite their history for various reasons, some rather understandably in truth, but here it comes across as an innocent bubble more than anything.

Anyway, the build-up to turning professional is pretty interesting and enjoyable. But let's be honest, we're all here for her recent suspension from tennis. Well, calm yourself. First, you have to go through a longer than I realised career. Especially, a longer than expected chapter on her first major title, Wimbledon 2004. This chapter is definitely one for the true tennis fans. I am way too casual. There were some interesting aspects, but overall this chapter was pretty dry and detailed, which made it long. It also shows some of the Sharapova which has apparently made her less popular amongst her peers. I felt awkward as she tells of Serena Williams crying in the locker room. Her theory that Serena's subsequent domination in their battles comes not just from the desire to win on the court but a shame from knowing someone else heard her crying makes me feel this is one of those tidbits that discretion would save for the post-retirement biography when they're both in their fifties or sixties. But that's me, and I've never been a number one ranked athlete so maybe it's not as weird as I think it is.

Then something of a whirlwind of more wins, more coaches, a major injury. It generally quite interesting, although at times that Sharapova bubble seems to resurface. At times I found myself just cringing at the assumptions made. Or perhaps it's fairer to say the wording and declaration of the assumption. As world number one it probably is fair to say at times Sharapova's rivals have been jealous of her, it's just unusual for me to hear someone say it so bluntly from fairly simple events. Some of the times Sharapova declares someone as jealous of her I can't help but feel that perhaps they were just having a bad day instead. But I didn't live in that bubble, and I have no doubt that there was jealousy, just not always in the cases described in the book.

Oddly, I found the sections on her romances more interesting than I expected. They were well-written and woven in well with her story and career. It could easily have been something more along the lines of the gossip magazines Sharapova seems to enjoy reading, but it is less romantic and more about the difficulty in finding a work/life balance when in such an intense and unusual environment. They make for good asides in her story.

And then the notorious failed drugs test. I am torn over this fairly brief section. So, Sharapova holds her hands up to taking a banned substance which I have to respect and applaud. She points out she could've done more to check, but she also argues she shouldn't have needed to do more. And she may have a point, but it feels wrong having her say it. It makes her honesty about what was in her system feel... less honest. Sure, she's going to be angry. And she has a lot of reason to lash out at some of her sponsors, in fact, I think Nike get off very lightly given some of their sponsored athletes, but it's hard to reconcile her confession with the adjoining claims that the governing bodies are really to blame.

Overall it proves an interesting read. There were a couple of chapters that fell a little short, but overall it was pretty good. I was surprised at how much emphasis was on her childhood, and found that the more informative and engaging section. I think it played a big part in how easily the book read. It adds a layer of personality which, frankly, is missing from the polished PR machine behind the endorsements and professional career. I tend to avoid mid-career biographies because they are often so intent on maintaining an image, but this drew me in due to the news coverage of Sharapova and I was pleased to get to know her more as a person.

I was very interested in reading about Maria's Sharapova's background as I had no idea of it. She was almost born near to Chernobyl in the town of Gomel which is either 40 miles or 100 miles away according to whichever version in the book is factually correct...or not. Because of their concern about the effect that the Chernobyl fallout was having on their area her parents moved to Western Siberia just before Maria was born.

Her talent and grit for playing tennis was evident at a very early age when she was gifted a tennis racquet aged 4. Her parents made some huge sacrifices in their lives, including living apart for almost 3 years, in order to get Maria to the USA so she could get some better training and coaching. Reading about how that happened in reality was a little surreal and made me wonder if this was really the true story as parts sounded farfetched.

I would have liked this book a lot more if it was for her constant sniping about Serena Williams. I have no idea if Serena really did behave badly towards Maria or not but Maria Sharapova starting four consecutive sentences about Serena with ‘I think she hated me for ...’ says it all. She is assuming Serena hates hers with no real ground for doing so. I found most of her 104 mentions of Serena in the book in very poor taste and quite unnecessary. If you are having a petty squabble with someone, real or imagined, don’t involve others who don’t know either side.

I also found her constant refrain that is not out to make friends on the tennis tour as they are her opponents sad. She seems to believe that anyone who says they have friends is lying as really they all hate one another. If that is the case it’s curious that so many top tennis players spend so much time in each other’s company both during their main career and afterwards.

A book that started well but descended into pettiness and meaness towards others.

This is very much a story of vision, dedication and belief. I'm not a big fan of Sharapova, but I found this autobiography filled with insight and a lot of honesty. The first part is as much about her father; he saw potential and the background is astonishing. No privileges or contacts to ease her path into the world of a professional tennis player.

If you're looking for a tittle tattle gossip book that exposes dalliances of major tennis players, digging the dirt, look elsewhere. This story certainly feels authentic; it's about the hard slog to the top, the grind, the grim repetion of practice, the reality of life on the circuit. As spectators, we see the fruits of such dedication and perseverance and we have views when some fall from grace. Sharapova tackles the subject of her ban, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions. For once, it's refreshing to read a well written 'personality' bio and I enjoyed this one.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

I'm not one for reading biographies, but I was curious to read about Sharapova's early life and her road to the pro tennis circuit. I loved the beginning of the book, with the immigration story of her and her family. When she gets to her success and life as a pro tennis player, then it gets a bit less interesting. There is a lot of arrogance (or possibly self-awareness) you probably find with most pro athletes. I dislike how she often talks for her competitors though, and the recurrent rants about Serena Williams.

This autobiography maps out Maria Sharapova's journey from her very early years in Siberia to her enforced rest due to the drugs ban. It's not a particularly well written book, and occasionally is a bit repetitive, but it holds your interest and carries you along until the final page. It is an amazing story but rather two dimensional, which may just reflect the enormous sacrifice that needs to be made to become a champion. There is also, I feel, much that is understated or glossed over. I don't like Maria more having read this book but I do admire her total dedication and sacrifice to her sport. An interesting read on several levels.

Firstly I would like to point out that I am neither a huge Tennis fan or have any particular allegiance to Maria Sharapova but I was drawn to this book by the description I read about the book. This is the story of a 6 year old girl who was taken by her father from Russia to Florida in an effort to make her a successful Tennis player. With very little money and a minimum of English both Maria and her father show tremendous determination, drive and belief to achieve their goals. It tells how a family that fled after the Chernobyl disaster to build a new life that would achieve greatness in women's tennis.
I found this biography absorbing, to read of such determination to succeed and of the sacrifices made to ensure their dreams.
I would like to thank Penguin Books UK and Net Galley for supplying a copy of this biography in exchange for an honest review.

Great book by Maria Sharapova that details the level of dedication and luck that a player and their family need to get to the top. Her father had absolute dedication to getting her to the top of the tennis world and she and her family sacrificed a lot to do so. Taken by her father as a young girl from her native Russia to Florida at the age of six they arrived speaking no English and knowing no one. They had a lot of luck and met some interesting people along the way, Maria and her Dad both had to put in to some extremely hard work to survive and it is a book about absolute dedication and belief.
It was great to get Maria's perspective on the suspension and her famous rivalry with Serena. It is an honest and fascinating look at the inside of the tennis world but an equally interesting read for anyone not interested tennis.

I did enjoy this book as it interests me what drives athletes like Maria. Her story was really amazing, leaving her mother and country at such a young age. I have to say though that I didn't really like the style of writing - it didn't feel personal enough. But it is definitely worth a read!

Maria Sharapova's memoirs cover her childhood as a promising Russian immigrant in Florida trying to make it pro on the tennis circuit against all odds. She traces through the ebbs and flows of her career, culminating on a fifteen month suspension for failing a drug test, as well as her ambitions for the future.

I must say that I am not particularly familiar with Sharapova's career; I rarely, if ever, watch competitive tennis. I was aware of her unrelenting rivalry with Serena Williams as well as, of course, her so-called 'doping' scandal that rocked the tennis world a few years ago now. I have not read any sports autobiographies and a lot of the personalities were completely new to me. With that being said, I loved this. I think it is one of the key accomplishments of her writing that it is so accessible and interesting to non-tennis fans.

I picked this one up because I was interested by the various characterisations put upon her in the wake of the scandal and I really wanted to learn more about her. She does not seem popular amongst other players on the tennis circuit and I had read some excerpts that really piqued my interest. Furthermore, I find the psychology of young children and the family dynamics in competitive sport absolutely fascinating. Whilst this was not particularly a focus in Sharapova's memoir, it is impossible to escape exploring these issues, and I really got a lot out of it. At one point, she talks about how tennis champions cannot get to where they are without a determined parent - "The tennis parent is the will of the player before the player has formed a will of her own." She openly writes that "tennis was also a way out for the family. If he could secure [her] living, the entire family could live at the expense of the daughter." I think that really speaks volumes to the family dynamics of many tennis pros and the personalities involved. I would have loved to read more on this but I knew going in this was not going to be that. I loved hearing her perspective on her career accomplishments, as well as her failures, and the way she views tennis and her upbringing in general.

It is a multi-faceted portrayal of a competitive woman and I do not think we have enough of this in popular culture. Sharapova paints herself as not a people person by any means: she is uniformly focused on winning and derisively regards the women on the tour who make friends as "fake". She is definitely no Mary Sue and wears her personality on her sleeve. I may be naive in this but I honestly do not think she wrote this hoping to put her best foot forward, even though it is a very on brand depiction. I think she was genuine in writing about her life and her psychology. I think we need more representation of dominant women who do not always play nice.

However, I did go into this book knowing about some of the criticisms that have been levelled at Unstoppable. She is a very tall woman - 6'2 - and she consistently characterises her arch rival, Serena Williams, who is half a foot shorter than her, as tall, thick, intimidating, mean looking. Many have posited that the passages read like dog-whistle racism and there is definitely an argument there. I did feel discomfited by some parts as there did seem to be an underlying tone, but that could be chalked up to her dislike and distrust. She does have a fixation with portraying herself as the underdog, the little girl who did, which I am not really sure stands up to scrutiny. To her credit, Sharapova has defended herself in the press by saying that many of these passages were written from the perspective of 17 year old Maria, much younger and really a novice compared to the Williams sisters.

I also broadly followed the meldonium scandal a few years back and Sharapova did not really respond to all the allegations made against her and appeared to misrepresent some of the reasoning by the tribunal that resulted in her fifteen month suspension. I do not think either party of the dispute, ITF or Maria Sharapova, come off particularly well through the whole proceedings but I enjoyed reading about it from her point of view. I hope she recovers her game now she is out of suspension and, in time, perhaps writes a follow-up. I would definitely be interested in reading it.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Books UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As a tennis fan, I found Unstoppable to be a fascinating insight into the world of the tour and also one of the game's most controversial figures.
Maria Sharapova has definitely led an eventful and unconventional life - this much is clear. She addresses her ban for taking performance enhancing drugs and she is really quite frank at times in the book - holding her hands up when having played badly.
I genuinely found this book interesting. I have to add though that I felt uncomfortable with some of the references to Serena Williams. Sharapova shares some very private moments of Serena's and I didn't enjoy reading them. There is no doubt that Sharapova is a great and talented player but Serena Williams is in a different league. I'm not convinced that she regards Sharapova with the special intensity, hatred and competition that Sharapova thinks she does.
All in all this made for a great read and I got through it in one sitting.

I loved this book, a great insight into her life. I could not put it down.

As a fan of most sports I have always enjoyed learning more about the game through the lives of those playing and personally involved.
My tennis knowledge is based on watchjng Wimbledon from a child and when I had children myself taking them to UK tournaments in Birmingham and Nottingham.
I was therefore blessed to watch Sharapova warm up and play a singles match. I was struck by her commitment and drive. So when offered a chance to read an early ARC of Maria's book "Unstoppable" I was delighted.
From the first page I have found myself totally immersed in her story. I enjoyed the friendly and honest disclosures and those wonderful insights into her mental as well as physical conditioning.
The sacrifice that had to be made to turn a promising 4 year old who could hit a tennis ball into a champion is indeed a remarkable account. How she has focused so much of her youth to leave her home and follow her father's dream to the USA. How she learned to trust others and be wary of the girls who would be her competitors for the majority of her growing up.
I think what struck a chord with me early in the piece was her honesty and approach to winning and losing. Her motivation was to succeed and beat all the other girls but that came through a routine and long hours of practice.
The elephant in the room remains her recent drug ban. She meets this head on and concludes with her response to all her critics. It was interesting that she was already planning her retirement and this book before that scandal hit the headlines in early 2016. That she battled back to return to tennis and compete is remarkable until you read this book and see how Maria overcame a serious shoulder injury in her career. You as left judging the sports woman solely on her record and the joy she has brought fans of tennis.
She may remain a controversial figure in the world of Tennis but after reading this book I can not be anything other than a fan. When she finally retires the game will lose a great ambassador and I trust everyone will not rush to judge in ignorance but from the facts and that history will judge her as a true champion of her sport based on her record alone.
At a time when other players courted fame and publicity as soon as it came their way, it was a refreshing change to see a child to grow into a young woman and a mature adult. Maria will always have her distractors but anyone reading her own story will share my appreciation of a writer who has opened her heart and allowed us to share Centre Court with her.

I thoroughly enjoyed the privilege of learning more about one of the world’s best athletes over the last decade or so. No matter what anyone says, Maria Sharapova deservedly has her name etched as one of the greats in the history books, and it’s great to have an understanding of her journey (I had very little knowledge of the magnitude of her commitment/perseverance and about the numerous obstacles and hurdles that have and are still being overcome)

Thanks NetGalley and Penguin Book UK for a review copy.

Unstoppable is an ironic title for a book, which was written when Maria Sharapova had been stopped from playing tennis due to taking a banned substance.

The book focuses largely on her move from Russia to the US when she was seven, while touching on other key moments such as her victory over Serena Williams at Wimbledon when she was just 17 years old - and that iconic footage of her holding a phone in her hand and trying to call her mum from Centre Court just after her victory.

It was a wise decision to focus on the struggles Maria and her father went through when she moved to Florida as a child. This is by far the most fascinating part of the book, especially given how much reveals about her character. Maria cuts a solitary - and often unlikable - figure, driven by her desire to win, and not caring much about how she comes across in the process. The rather unpleasant comments she makes about fellow players - the remarks about Anna Kournakova's clothes, for example - show a certain nastiness to her character as well.

Unstoppable isn't a book that will make you fall in love with Maria, although she had to overcome more than most to get where she is. However, there isn't much in the book to inspire young people to either follow in her footsteps or at least strive for what they want.

The writing is like that of a 15 year old teenager, basic and quite shallow. The diary entries she shares are a particularly good example of that, with one ending with "get a life".. It's certainly not one of the better written autobiographies on the bookshelves.

Unstoppable doesn't reveal much that most people don't already know about Maria. There aren't any intriguing insights, big revelations, or deep and meaningful comments. The insight into the aftermath of the doping scandal is somewhat interesting, but more so for her refusal to absolute refusal to accept any responsibility for taking a banned substance.

If you're a fan of Maria Sharapova, you'll probably already know everything in the book. If you're not, there's not much to keep you reading - especially not the simple prose.

Maria writes in a very personal style, you really feel like she is having a casual conversation with you and I found the pages flying by.
Her story describes how she and her father left Russia to go to Florida after Martina Navratilova spotted her talent and urged her to pursue a career in tennis.
The relationship with her father, Yuri, fascinated me. They left everything behind including Maria's mother who followed much later. 
Yuri had to work various labouring jobs to pay the rent as Maria attended tennis academies full of the offspring of rich Americans. Her skill was perfected by repetitive practice with an emphasis on strength and endurance and gradually it began to pay off and she started winning tournaments.
She talks about her fascinating rivalry with the William sisters, a devastating shoulder injury and of course, she gives her own account of how she got banned from tennis in 2016.
She has a steely determination and desperate need to win on the court. I always considered her somewhat of an 'ice queen', hardly smiling during a match, unfriendly to opponents and prickly in media interviews. She explains in the book that she never saw the person across the net as a friend but an opponent, someone who she had to beat. If she made friends on the lonely tennis circuits there would be a time when she had to meet them in a match and she didn't want personal feelings disrupting her will to win.
A good read for tennis fans, there isn't an outpouring of gossipy anecdotes like in most celebrity autobiographies but she certainly has an interesting story to tell.
 
Pub date 12 September 2017
 
I was kindly sent the book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A very enjoyable book to read, reading how Sharapova came to rise through the tennis ranks to win the Grand Slams and be world #1.

I approached “Unstoppable” as someone with a casual interest in tennis. I’ll watch some Wimbledon, and take a passing interest in the other Grand Slam tournaments, the Olympics and the Davis Cup. And with no strong feelings either way about Maria Sharapova, I feel qualified to give a reasonably independent review of her book.

The first thing to say, unfortunately, is that “Unstoppable” is not particularly well written. It gave me the impression of being a hastily written early draft, rather than the finished article. Several times, especially in the first half of the book, I found myself puzzling over the timeline, as Maria seemed to flit back and forth in time by a year or two at odd moments. There didn’t seem to be any purpose to this, it was more like while recounting her story she would suddenly remember something that happened a couple of years previously, and she’d better talk about it now.

I also found many of her descriptions of specific matches and tournaments perfunctory and uninspiring. I came to the conclusion that the book could have done with a more critical editorial review before publication.

Her introduction, describing her 2016 meldonium drama, seemed to provide a reason for this. Maybe the book really was rushed onto the bookshelves due to that incident, as an attempt to explain her side of the story and assist her public rehabilitation. But in the final chapters a different story emerges, where her autobiography was apparently being planned for release anyway to coincide with her possible retirement. It seemed that the drug test affected the circumstance of the book’s release rather than its timing.

On the positive side, the writing style persuades me that this is really Maria’s voice. Rich Cohen is credited as her co-author, but a good majority of the words, I’m sure, are Sharapova’s. So I do believe I have seen an authentic picture of her life through her own eyes.

And I can’t criticise the writing without also mentioning one of the most beautiful lines I have ever read in a sporting context. It captured me immediately and stayed with me long after I’d finished reading the book. She is describing a point in the 2012 French Open final against Sara Errani:

“I waited and waited for the bounce. For a long moment, the ball just seemed to hang there. And the stadium was quiet – so quiet. It was the sort of quiet only a crowd can make.“

As I’ve mentioned, the match commentaries are, with a few exceptional moments, lacklustre. But where “Unstoppable” excels is in the background story. From the moment she picked up a tennis racket in Sochi at the age of four, and found that she loved to hit, through the journey to Florida with her father, who was guiding her – or more accurately propelling her with a force of sheer belief. And then when she had reached the Promised Land, her battle to find, and keep, her place at one tennis academy after another, to keep advancing her game at any cost.

The cost was high. Maria seems to have forfeited any semblance of a normal childhood for the sake of her career. The rewards have ultimately been great in her case, but throughout her early years you see many similarly talented children going through the same process. Barely a handful will have achieved any kind of success, and I can’t help wondering what their – or their parents’ – dreams have cost them.

“Unstoppable” also gives a powerful, if largely unsurprising, glimpse of Sharapova’s mental attitude to the game of tennis. Throughout the years her constant aim has not been to win tournaments or gain prize money or attain world rankings. Those have been mere side effects. As she herself put it:

“I can get fancy and sweet about it, but at the bottom my motivation is simple: I want to beat everyone.“

That kind of focus, and the dogged determination it engenders, has clearly worked incredibly well for her career. But again, there is a cost. Even among her peers, she has struggled to form friendships. She acknowledges that, and calls it a strength, believing that she would lose her edge if she liked any of her competitors. Maybe so, but there is a strand of loneliness meandering through the whole book. It’s most obvious in those early chapters when her mother is struggling for years to get a visa to visit her in America, but it remains through to the very end, and the reception she receives after the meldonium story breaks.

Sadly, Maria’s perspective also suggests that an alternative title for the book could be “Unlikeable.” When she sees other players getting on together, she’s inclined to believe they’re faking. When they open up to her emotionally, she will be thinking, if not saying, “Why are you telling me this? Can’t you see I’ve got a match to play?” I appreciate her honesty, and I understand why she reacts this way. I just can’t work out how much of her apparent hard-heartedness is intentional, and how much is simply a result of her single-minded upbringing. I hope that when her career ends she will be able to put this toughness to one side and reveal her more affectionate self.

Your response to this book will likely be determined by your existing response to Sharapova. Both fans and detractors will find ammunition in the book, and that is certainly reason to commend it.

In summary, “Unstoppable” is not a literary masterpiece, but it is an honest and interesting account of a life few people will ever truly understand, and which I, for one, would not wish to live.

A well-written biography of Maria Sharapova, full of emotion and truth about her life and career evolution. I didn't know much about her, nor the particularities of tennis as a professional sport. She has honestly wrote down a detailed account of her most important challenges, matches, hopes and fears. I learned a lot about her style and determination to win it all, about this strong mentality of a champion. It's amazing how many hours and years it takes to become the dream.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this arc.

I'm not a biography lover but was intrigued with the doping scandal? However it turned into an interesting read. Learning of her struggles through the years and her sheer determination to succeed .