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Naturally, when Maria Sharapova took the call on her mobile phone to tell her that Wimbledon would be paying equal prize-money to women this summer, she was out shopping. That was probably the only news which would have dragged her from the boutiques.
The 20-year-old Russian earns more
cash than any other sportswoman on the planet, so she had not been bothered by the money, just by the principle.
It is 123 years since the first women's champion received a silver flower basket valued at 20 guineas, while the men's winner was given a gold prize worth about 10 guineas more. But this time there will be full parity of pay for the first time, headlined by the £700,000 (NZ$1.8 million) prize for the men's and women's champions.
"It had seemed as though we had been fighting and fighting the whole time for equal pay, and we had been ready to fight for it again this year. But we've got it now, so we don't have to fight for it anymore," said Sharapova. "It's going to make Wimbledon even more special for me. They are treating us as equals."
The innocence of 2004, when she won her first grand slam title, has long gone. Sharapova has done a lot of growing up since then. As well as campaigning for equal pay at Wimbledon, she became an ambassador for the United Nations this year, to highlight those affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
This is an issue which she feels passionately about because when the reactor blew up in 1986, Sharapova's parents were living only 80 miles away. Just months later, Sharapova's mother was pregnant with the future tennis player, and was worried what the toxic fall-out might do to her unborn daughter. So the family moved to Siberia, and Sharapova sees herself as a Chernobyl survivor.
"I feel so lucky I got out of there," she said.
Life on the court has been a challenge, as she was thumped in the final of the Australian Open by Serena Williams, and in the French Open semifinals by Ana Ivanovic.
Sharapova is the second seed at Wimbledon, which starts tomorrow, and will face Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan in the first round before a likely fourth-round meeting with Venus Williams. If she can get through that, she can dream of a few more shopping excursions.
- INDEPENDENT