Maria Sharapova, 39, says she used injuries and time off from tennis to prepare for life after retirement.
In an interview with the WSJ Leadership Institute published Tuesday, Sharapova said she began planning her next chapter years before stepping away from the sport.
“I recognized from an early age that as a woman, my career would end much sooner than in other professions,” Sharapova said. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to hustle. I’ve got to start learning from other people.'”
She said she also realized that her growing profile as a tennis star gave her “a platform” that opened doors beyond the sport.
As she became more financially secure, she began making investments she hoped would “turn into solid return on investment in the future,” Sharapova said.
“When I was injured, or I had a break, I’d go to a business school, I would take a few weeks. I would grow, I would take internships. I went to the NBA for a few weeks to shadow Adam Silver,” Sharapova said about the league’s commissioner.
She said she intentionally used the time off from the sport to broaden her knowledge beyond tennis.
“There are elements of growth that even though you’re progressing in one arena, I thought it was really critical and important to help grow in others,” she said.
Sharapova won her first Grand Slam title at age 17. During her career, she won four more Grand Slam titles and was the world’s highest-paid female athlete for 11 consecutive years. In 2020, at age 32, she announced her retirement from professional tennis.
Sharapova began building her business portfolio by launching her candy brand, Sugarpova, in 2012.
In 2016, she received a 15-month doping ban after testing positive for meldonium.
During her time away from the sport, Sharapova enrolled in a global management course and a leadership course at Harvard Business School, she told CNBC Make It in 2018.
Sharapova also interned at the NBA, working with Silver.
“She took part in many of our department meetings to learn about the NBA operations,” a spokesperson for Silver told The New York Post in 2016.
Other athletes have also used their playing careers to lay the groundwork for a second act.
Serena Williams launched venture capital firm Serena Ventures in 2014 while she was still competing and later said she hoped to be remembered for more than her tennis career.
“I admire Billie Jean because she transcended her sport. I’d like it to be: Serena is this and she’s that and she was a great tennis player and she won those slams,” Williams wrote in a column for Vogue in 2022.
In a 2022 interview with GQ, Tom Brady said he started thinking about his retirement a decade before he retired.
“I’d watched a lot of athletes’ careers end, and they don’t have anything enjoyable they can get into, and then there’s too much free time on their hands. I was like, that’s not gonna be me. I’m gonna do really cool things in my second career,” Brady said.
Brady briefly retired in 2022 before returning for one final NFL season. He retired for good in February 2023.
Since retiring, Brady has expanded his business portfolio. He launched his apparel brand BRADY, invested in various sports teams and signed a 10-year, $375 million contract with Fox Sports as its lead NFL analyst.
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