Flashback: junior final between Maria Sharapova and Peng Shuai at Torneo dell’Avvenire

Not much is happening in the tennis world today, so I’ll use the opportunity to post one more article that shows women’s tennis players when they were kids. Yesterday we featured little Amelie Mauresmo, and today I am sharing with you a part of the match between Russia’s Maria Sharapova and China’s Peng Shuai from the 2000 final of the junior clay-court tournament Torneo dell’Avvenire in Italy.

Sharapova was 13 years old, while Peng was 14. Sharapova lost the final 6-1 6-2, but only four years later she won Wimbledon, then the next year she reached the No.1 ranking, and two more Grand Slam titles followed in her career (her total of singles WTA titles is 21). Peng, however, has no singles titles on the WTA Tour to this day, and her highest ranking was No.31. Sharapova and Peng are currently tied at 1-1 in their head-to-head statistics.

For our complete collection of pictures and videos of women’s tennis players when they were still children, visit this page.