Maria Sharapova - 009

Sharapova reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time at the 2004 French Open, where she lost to Paola Suarez. Immediately afterwards, she seized her third title at Birmingham, a grass-court Wimbledon warm-up event.The 17-year-old Sharapova went into Wimbledon as the thirteenth seed, but tipped by some to perhaps cause some upsets.

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She made it to her second straight Grand Slam quarterfinal, where she defeated Ai Sugiyama 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, and then upset former world number one Lindsay Davenport 2-6, 7-6, 6-1 in the semifinals. She faced two-time defending champion Serena Williams in the final, with Williams the runaway favourite; however, Sharapova caused one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history by beating Williams 6-1, 6-4, to become the third-youngest Wimbledon women's champion (after Lottie Dod and Martina Hingis) and second-youngest in the open era, the first Russian to win that tournament and the lowest seed to win the women's event at that time (though Venus Williams would be seeded lower on her championship wins in 2005 and 2007).