Maria Sharapova was born on the 19th of April, 1987 in the small Siberian town of Nyagan, where her parents moved from Gomel, fleeing from the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. She began to play tennis when she was 4.5. Her family was living in Sochi at the time.

Nyagan is one of the youngest towns, situated on the territory of the Western Siberia, 230 km far to the North-West from the capital of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Khanty-Mansiysk. Created as a settlement of foresters in 1967, since 1978 it has became a territory with the leading oil industry. At present the oil & gas production in Nyagan carried out by the largest oil companies of Russia. Among them are "Tyumen Oil company - Nyagan", Khantymansiyskneftegasgeologiya", "Archneftegeologiya", "RITEK", "Sibneft" and so on. Oil and gas-refining factories, geological-prospecting expeditions have been created and are working there.