“Tennis – I’m saying goodbye.” With these words, Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova, 32, has announced her retirement.
“我要和网球说再见了。”32岁的俄罗斯网球巨星玛利亚·莎拉波娃用这句话宣布了自己的退役决定。

“How do you leave behind the only life you’ve ever known?” she asked herself. Several reasons played a role in Sharapova leaving the tennis court for good.
“你该如何放下自己唯一熟悉的生活？”她如此自问。有好几个原因促使莎拉波娃决定永远离开网球场。

Over the last couple of years, she’s dealt with an injury in her right shoulder and inflammation in her forearms that may have prevented her from returning to top form. In more recent news, the death of her longtime friend, US basketball legend Kobe Bryant, also played a factor in her decision to retire.
在过去的几年间，她一直在治疗右肩的伤病和前臂的炎症，这或许让她无法恢复到最佳状态。而最近又有消息传来，她的多年好友、美国篮坛传奇科比·布莱恩特去世，也促使了她做出退役决定。

“As I think you’ve seen throughout my career, my perseverance has been my greatest tool, my greatest strength,” Sharapova said in an interview. “But I’ve started feeling like it was becoming a weakness, because the stubbornness that was keeping me going was keeping me going for wrong reasons.”
“正如你们在我整个职业生涯中所看到的，毅力是我最重要的武器，也是我最大的力量源泉，”莎拉波娃在一场采访中如此表示。“但现在我反倒开始觉得这成为了我的一个弱点，因为坚持下去的固执似乎让我走错了方向。”

Sharapova rose to stardom at age 17 when she won Wimbledon in 2004. She won a total of four Grand Slam singles titles: the 2006 US Open, the 2008 Australian Open, and the 2012 and 2014 French Open. She also earned the Fed Cup title in Russia in 2008 and an Olympic silver medal in singles in 2012, among many other accomplishments.
2004年，年仅17岁的莎拉波娃在温布尔登网球锦标赛中夺冠，声名鹊起。后来，她又斩获四次单打大满贯冠军：分别是2006年的美国网球公开赛、2008年的澳大利亚网球公开赛以及2012和2014年法国网球公开赛。她还获得了2008年俄罗斯联合会杯冠军，2012年伦敦奥运会单打银牌等诸多成就。

For 16 straight years from 2004 , Sharapova was the world’s highest-earning female athlete, according to Forbes. Off the court, she made millions of dollars from companies such as Evian and Nike, as well as starting her own candy company.
据《福布斯》杂志报道，自2004年起，莎拉波娃连续16年高居世界女子运动员收入榜榜首。赛场之外，她通过为依云、耐克等公司代言赚取了数百万美元，还开创了自己的糖果公司。

“Tennis showed me the world – and it showed me what I was made of,” Sharapova wrote on Facebook on Feb 26, alongside a photo of herself as a young girl with a tennis racquet. “It’s how I tested myself and how I measured my growth. And so in whatever I might choose for my next chapter, my next mountain, I’ll still be pushing. I’ll still be climbing. I’ll still be growing.”
“网球向我展示了这个世界 —— 也向我展示了自己是怎样的人，”莎拉波娃2月26日在脸书上写道，并配上了一张自己小时候拿着网球拍的照片。“这是我用来测试自己并衡量自己成长的标准。所以不管我选择怎样来开展自己生命的新篇章，不管我选择什么作为我攀登的下一座山峰，我都会继续努力。我会一直攀登，我会一直成长。”

(Translator & Editor: Wang Xingwei AND Luo Sitian)
https://www.i21st.cn/story/3484.html