A fan proposes to Maria Sharapova in Brisbane Open

By Jai Prakash
Modified Jan 07, 2015 10:08 GMT
Maria Sharapova poses for a selfie with fans at the Brisbane Open

Maria Sharapova had an easy 6-0, 6-1 win over Kazakhstan‘s Yaroslava Shvedova in the first round of the Brisbane International tournament. However, it wasn’t the match that made all the news as a lucky fan proposed to the Russian tennis star after the match. 29-year old Damian Torrie is a huge fan of Sharapova and he held up a poster which read “Marry me Maria Sharapova?” much to the amusement of fans present in the stadium.

Maria did say “yes”,but it was for another question that Damian asked. Damian recalled this surreal experience.

“I walked down there and got her to sign the poster and said ‘Can I have a quick selfie?’” Damian said.

“There were a lot of people around but she was really nice and kind. She just really loved the support and thanked me for it. It was amazing to meet her. I’ve always wanted to.”

He decided to go to the Pat Rafter arena when he heard Sharapova was playing in the night. Damian saw several posters in the stadium with personalised messages for the Russian beauty and decided to follow suit.

“I could’ve said ‘Marry me, Maria’, but I wanted to make it a bit more personal so I added her last name,” he said.

The photo became a viral hit and many fans tweeted it to Sharapova’s boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov’s account. Damian is not worried about it and thinks he can give Dimitrov a run for his money.

“He probably isn’t too happy, but I’m sure I could,” he joked. It’s funny though because I tweeted the photo out on Twitter and a few people said ‘Grigor won’t be happy’.