Maria Sharapova is shedding more details about her 2008 shoulder injury as the Russian tennis icon admits she started “mentally beating myself up” when the first concerns came that she was misdiagnosed
In the spring of 2008, Sharapova missed the Miami Open due to a shoulder issue. While the former world No. 1 managed to start her clay season in time, her results were inconsistent and she was visibly struggling. After picking up a shock Wimbledon second-round defeat – withdrawing from the Beijing Olympics – and pulling out of her Montreal round-of-16 match – the 2004 Wimbledon champion decided to fully focus on determining what was the exact issue with her shoulder.
And after seeing specialist David Elchek, Sharapova finally got her answer and then it was confirmed that it wasn’t just a small issue.
Sharapova: I started mentally beating up myself because I knew for months that there was a problem
“I was misdiagnosed with my shoulder injury for quite some time… I had this pain, and no one could quite point it out. They said, ‘Oh, you have tendinitis and overuse, and you have very flexible shoulders and joints.’ It wasn’t until several months of just beating myself up mentally that I know there is a problem, that David Elchek found this flap in my tendon,” the former world No. 1 recalled on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.
“For three months, I am serving and I’m getting this nauseating pain and that for sure affected my confidence, my speed and even my recovery, because all I could think about was that once I was getting up there and my shoulder was right next to my ear, that I’m going to feel the sharp pain go through my body.”
After undergoing surgery, Sharapova was sidelined for nine months. While the surgery itself was a success and she achieved some great results afterward, the former five-time Grand Slam champion’s shoulder issues never went fully away. Just before retiring from pro tennis, she had her second shoulder surgery in 2019.
Taylor Swift Unveils Glamorous New Album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ Featuring Sabrina Carpenter, Max Martin Collab, and Exclusive Vinyl—Out This October
Taylor Swift has revealed her new album “The Life of a Showgirl” will be released on October 3, and unveiled the cover art and a tracklist that features Sabrina Carpenter on the title song.
Swift made the big reveal on her social media and during the Wednesday episode of the “New Heights Show” podcast, co-hosted by her Super Bowl Champion beau, Travis Kelce, and his brother Jason. Her website is offering variants including “The Life of a Showgirl: Sweat and Vanilla Perfume” in glitter orange vinyl, deluxe CD and cassette. While the podcast aired, she debuted the deluxe album covers on her site.
In a post on Instagram, she confirmed that she produced the album with Max Martin and Shellback. “And, baby, that’s show business for you. New album The Life of a Showgirl. Out October 3,” she wrote.
On the podcast, she said that “The Life of a Showgirl” was inspired by the joy that being on the Eras Tour brought her. “This album is about what was going on behind the scenes of my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant,” she said. “It just comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life, and so that effervesence has come through on this record. And like you said, bangers.
She also confirmed that the 12 songs on the tracklist will be it for this era — in other words, “there’s no other songs coming.”
“With ‘Tortured Poets Department,’ I was like here’s a data dump of everything I thought, felt, experienced in two or three years. Here’s 31 songs. This is 12,” she said. “There’s not a thirteenth, there’s not other ones coming. This is the record I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time. I also wanted it to be every single song is on this album for hundreds of reasons, and you couldn’t take one out and it be the same album, you couldn’t add one and be… It’s just right.
“That focus and that kind of discipline with creating an album and keeping the bar really high is something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time,” she continued. “I tend to write lots and lots of music, so it’s a temptation to release lots of music. But oftentimes, I wanted to do an album that was so focused on quality and on the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle that these 12 songs for my 12th album, I feel like we achieved that and I’m really happy about that.”
Leading up to the release of the podcast, fans noticed a countdown on her official website that was counting down to 7 p.m. ET. Her landing page featured an image of a door that was featured during the Eras Tour, and as the hours ticked by, four different boxes gradually appeared in different colors and with locks on them. Some fans surmised that each box could represent a different-colored vinyl variant.
The 14-time Grammy winner announced “The Life of a Showgirl” early Tuesday, after a mysterious countdown clock appeared on her website. Fans speculated that her 12th album was in the works, given that the clock was set to run out on the 12th day of the month at 12:12 a.m. ET. The project was then revealed in a sneak peek clip from her “New Heights Show” appearance shared on social media.
Spotify billboards began popping up around the country following the album reveal, sharing a code to a playlist entitled “And, baby, that’s show business for you.” The playlist, comprised of 22 Swift songs, likely contains clues and Easter Eggs about what to expect from “The Life of a Showgirl.” Some Swifties already pointed out that all the songs on the playlist were produced by Max Martin and Shellback, which suggested their return for the new album.
Check out the tracklist for “The Life of a Showgirl” below:
The Fate of Ophelia
Elizabeth Taylor
Opalite
Father Figure
Eldest Daughter
Ruin the Friendship
Actually Romantic
Wi$h Li$t
Wood
Cancelled!
Honey
The Life of a Showgirl featuring Sabrina Carpenter
