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Maria Sharapova once opened up about planning her wedding with her then-fiance, former Slovenian professional basketball player Sasha Vujacic.
Sharapova and Vujacic began dating in 2009, and the Slovenian proposed to the former on the one-year anniversary of their first meeting. During the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open (now known as the Miami Open), Sharapova discussed how their relationship had evolved since the engagement and the progress of their wedding plans.
While she was initially excited about planning their wedding, Maria Sharapova revealed that she found herself overwhelmed after receiving numerous wedding magazines from her friends.
The then-23-year-old disclosed that she eventually took a step back from the planning, realizing that she and Vujacic had plenty of time, as they were quite young.
"Yeah, in the beginning I was really, really excited, and all my friends were giving me like wedding magazines and wedding books. That was like the number one gift for Christmas for me," Maria Sharapova said during a press conference after her third-round win.
"But I was quite overwhelmed with it, and then I just put them down and said, Okay, I have plenty of time. We're still very young," she added.
The Russian disclosed that very little had changed in the transition from dating to engagement, except for the comfort of knowing she had someone to come home to.
"The only thing that really changes, you just know that when you come home or when you're done with your travels you have somebody to come home to. It's always really comforting and nice. Yeah, but we're quite young. We have a lot of time," she said.
Sharapova also shared that she and Vujacic struggled to spend quality time together due to their demanding careers, which involved extensive travel.
Vujacic's basketball commitments in the NBA, playing for the LA Lakers (2004-2010) and the New Jersey Nets (2010-2011), followed by a stint with Anadolu Efes in the Turkish league from 2011 to 2013, added to the distance.
"Well, we do a lot of traveling, so, yeah, we spend a lot of time on the planes," she said.
The strain of constant travel and separation eventually led to the end of their engagement, as Maria Sharapova revealed during a press conference at the 2012 US Open.
"Our career schedules just made it extremely difficult to see each other with the traveling, and especially his career move to Turkey," she said.
Later in 2020, the Russian got engaged to businessman Alexander Gilkes, and the couple welcomed their first child, son Theodore, in July 2022.
Maria Sharapova lost to Victoria Azarenka in the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open final
Maria Sharapova entered the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open as the 16th seed, kicking off her campaign with a commanding 6-3, 6-2 win over Petra Martic. She continued her dominant run, beating Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 6-0 and triumphing over Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals.
The Russian faced a tough challenge against Alexandra Dulgheru, narrowly edging past the Romanian 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(5) victory. She beat Andrea Petkovic 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 to set up a blockbuster title clash against Victoria Azarenka.
Azarenka emerged victorious 6-1, 6-4 to clinch her second title at the WTA 1000 event in Miami.
