He first noticed little Masha with a big tennis racket in her hands at her father’s tennis practice (Yuri Sharapov has always been a great tennis lover). Here is an interesting fact: Masha’s father was a friend of Eugeny Kafelnikov’s father, and it was Eugeny who gave her first racket as a gift. “One thing really amazed me from the start. At 4.5 she was highly developed intelectually. Masha absorbed everything I told her or showed her. She was an exceptionally quick learner).

She was able to master some of the blows which are still not clear to most people. At 7 she could do a twisted serving, which made her a young master. You can’t imagine what a good natured, kind and smiling girl she is, but the moment she takes a tennis racket in her hands, she gets wild. She is goal-oriented, fears no one and is determined to win at all costs! During the three years of our working together she’d never told me that she was tired!” - Y. V. Yudkin remembers.