Former Wimbledon winner and world’s sexiest tennis player looks unrecognisable as she shares iconic throwback picture
A FORMER Wimbledon champion looks completely unrecognisable after she shared an iconic throwback picture – and fans were left begging her to go back blonde.
The former world No1 was crowned the world’s hottest athlete for four consecutive years during her career.
She was regularly included in lists of top beautiful celebrities.
And the 6ft 2ins tennis superstar has proven she has not lost any of her glamour since hanging up her racket in 2020.
They hit the headlines back in May by posting a photo of themselves in a tiny bra along with a new hair colour.
And now the 36-year-old has shown once again how different she looks now compared to her playing days with her latest Instagram snaps.
The Russian beauty posted a recent photo of herself in France along with a throwback pic to when she had blonde looks.
And she captioned them with: “Excited to be at Cannes Lions!! Join me this afternoon at the Sport Beach court at 1pm.”
The lady we are talking about is, of course, Maria Sharapova – who shot to superstardom by winning Wimbledon aged just 17 way back in 2004.
And her 4.5m followers instantly jumped into the comments, with some urging her to ditch the darker new shade of brown hair and go back to being a blonde bombshell.
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“No words match how pretty you are,” declared one as another said she looked “amazing”.
However, some of her longer-term admirers begged her to return blonde.
One commented: “Go back to blonde.”
While another wrote: “I miss your blonde hair.”
Sharapova became a mum when baby son Theodore was born in July 2022.
The Florida-based former athlete has developed into a successful businesswoman since ending her playing career three years ago.
Sharapova is one of only ten women ever to lift all four Grand Slams – completing her set at the 2012 French Open which she won again in 2014.
Sharapova’s on-court performances saw her earn £31million in prize money but it was off the court she raked in the money with a further £231m in sponsorship and modelling deals with the likes of Nike, Evian, Porsche and TAG Heuer.
That made Sharapova the highest-paid female athlete in the world across all sports between 2006 and 2016.
However, despite being one of the greatest female players of her generation, her legacy was tainted in 2016 as she received a 15-month ban for failing a drugs test with meldonium in her system.