Agent Max Eisenbud has told a pretty great story about how Maria Sharapova’s father celebrated the Russian’s 2004 Wimbledon win by withdrawing $10,000 from the bank and then partying for a week with his friends in mountains.
In 2004, a 17-year-old Sharapova became a Grand Slam champion in quite some style as she dismantled defending champion Serena Williams 6-1 6-4 in the final. That year, Sharapova also defeated former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the semifinal en route to winning the title at The Championships.
Following her astonishing 2004 Wimbledon run, Sharapova – who was 17 years and 75 days old at the time of her win – instantly became a global superstar and tipped to do major things in the future.
Maria Sharapova© Getty Images Sport – Mike Hewitt
Yuri Sharapov – who moved with Maria to the United States in 1994 after being advised to do so because that would give his daughter the best chance at succeeding at tennis – celebrated hard his daughter’s Wimbledon success as for a week no one saw him except his friends who went with him.
“When she won (Wimbledon 2004), he wanted, he made us go to the bank, you know the bank on the side of Wimbledon to get $10,000,” Eisenbud said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.
“You know, you can’t travel with more than $10,000. He took 10,000 cash and went with his buddies in the mountains and partied for like a week and left me with her.
“He left the next morning, ten in cash and went to party with all his friends. I never know where he went, he just said: ‘I’m going, meeting all my buddies, that I grew up with in the mountains and we’re going to party.’ I didn’t ask any questions, all my job was I needed to get him 10,000 in cash and he was going to party with his friends.”
Maria Sharapova and Yuri Sharapov© Getty Images Sport – Bob Martin
In the remainder of her career, Sharapova made only one more Wimbledon final as she ended as runner-up to Petra Kvitova in the 2011 final at The Championships. Also, Sharapova was a Wimbledon semifinalist on three other occasions after her 2004 Wimbledon win.
While Sharapova never again won Wimbledon, she still finished her career with five Grand Slams – she won the French Open twice and had one triumph at the Australian Open and US Open.
Eisenbud tells how Sharapova landed him a deal with Li Na
Shortly after her 2004 Wimbledon win, Sharapova quickly became the face of some of the biggest brands and Eisenbud negotiated all of those deals. To this day, Sharapova remains one of the most marketable players in tennis history. And Eisenbud making Sharapova a fortune didn’t go unnoticed as other players definitely noticed the sponsorship and endorsement deals he was landing the Russian.
In 2009, former world No. 2 Li – the year in which the Chinese was starting to establish herself as one of the best players on the Tour – she was looking for a new agent. Eisenbud saw a good opportunity in collaborating with Li and he did his best to make a presentation after which the Chinese would have to accept his offer. But when Eisenbud met with Li in a hotel and shook her hand, she just told him that she saw how he made Sharapova rich and that he was her new agent.
“So when I signed on with Li Na in 2009, I had this huge presentation. I met her at the Radisson Hotel meeting room. I had this huge presentation. I worked days, weeks on presenting it to her,” Eisenbud said.
“She comes in the room and she’s like, um, You you made Maria Sharapova rich. I’m gonna sign with you. That’s all she said to me. I’m like you don’t want to see the presentation. She’s like, ‘no.’
“She was able to get some funding from some person she met in Hong Kong and then she, uh, through Nike China, got the meeting with me.”
Li Na – Quinn Rooney© Getty Images Sport – Quinn Rooney
After signing with Eisenbud, Li – who was 27 at the time – went on to enjoy her career-best days in the next couple of years and she also landed several lucrative sponsorship deals. When inking a deal with Eisenbud, the Chinese very directly made it clear that she could retire early and that she wanted to make the most ouf of her remaining years.
“She basically was like, okay, I’m only signing with you because you made Maria Sharapova rich. So then okay, I’m like my head is spinning, I’m like did she just say she’s signing with me? I it was it was bizarre,” Eisenbud added.
“‘I have three knee surgeries. I just need to make as much money as possible and I think you, you did a good job [with Maria Sharapova], so I’m going with you.'”
After becoming a Grand Slam champion at the 2011 French Open, Li also won the 2014 Australian Open and achieved a career-high ranking of No. 2 following her triumph at Melbourne Park. Half a year later, Li played the final tournament of her career at Wimbledon and retired at the age of 32.
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