She may be banned from the professional tennis circuit for two years on doping charges, but a smart cookie like Maria Sharapova isn’t going to sit around and do nothing!
According to the latest reports, the five-time Grand Slam title-holder and former World No. 1 is enrolling at Harvard Business School.
The tennis superwoman’s intellectual credentials must be top-class too, because Harvard has an infamously tough admission policy, with only 11% of applicants gaining admission every year.
Sharapova certainly possesses a sharp business acumen. She’s the wealthiest female athlete in the world, with an estimated net worth of around $195 million, much of which has come from endorsing all kinds of products from Porsches to luxury watches by Tag Heuer to her own brand of candy.
The doping ban has negatively affected Ms. Sharapova’s fortunes though, because most of the endorsement contracts were suspended after the ruling against her, as was her position as UN Goodwill Ambassador.
During the Australian Open in January, this year, Maria Sharapova tested positive for the substance ‘meldonin’, but says it’s part of a heart medication she has been taking since 2006. The ban imposed on her is going to last till 2018, but she has appealed against it, and is awaiting a court decision that should be announced by mid-July this year, much before her first semester begins.