{"id":654239,"date":"2025-12-25T14:45:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/654239\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T14:45:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:45:20","slug":"tennis-star-looks-unrecognisable-after-posing-with-david-beckham-at-wimbledon-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/654239\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis star looks unrecognisable after posing with David Beckham at Wimbledon | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrity watchers regularly descend upon Wimbledon<\/a> for the tournament’s opening day, though some familiar faces are more recognisable than others. Spotting David Beckham<\/a> in an Instagram post wouldn’t have posed much difficulty for fans earlier this year, but the former Wimbledon champion beaming beside him might have left some scratching their heads.<\/p>\n

The former Manchester United<\/a>, Real Madrid and England player is a frequent visitor to the All England Club. Consequently, he’s rubbed shoulders with tennis’s elite, forging what appears to be a genuine friendship with five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova. The latter was all smiles as she posed with Beckham in a heartwarming photograph shared on her Instagram<\/a>, captioned: “Let the (Wimbledon<\/a>) games begin”.<\/p>\n

However, she appeared dramatically transformed from the statuesque, blonde sporting icon supporters remembered throughout her 19-year professional career.<\/p>\n

At 38, Sharapova had swapped her signature fair hair for a shorter, darker style – and the difference was striking.<\/p>\n

Sharapova’s appearance alongside Beckham seemed like more of a catch-up than an initial meeting.<\/p>\n

The duo were previously photographed together on social media last year at a Stella Artois function, mingling with the likes of Hollywood<\/a> star Matt Damon and rapper Ludacris.<\/p>\n

Sharapova, despite retiring from professional tennis, remains a prominent figure in the public eye, often spotted at glamorous events and boasting high-profile sponsorship deals.<\/p>\n

Her rise to fame was meteoric, clinching the Wimbledon title at just 17 years old in 2004, defeating Serena Williams in the final.<\/p>\n

Sharapova’s illustrious career included a US Open victory, an Australian Open<\/a> triumph, and two French Open titles, propelling her to the pinnacle of women’s tennis.<\/p>\n

However, it was her initial Wimbledon win that was particularly memorable, and according to Sharapova, ignited a strained relationship with Williams.<\/p>\n

In her 2017 autobiography ‘Unstoppable: My Life so Far’, she wrote: “I think Serena hated me for being the skinny kid who beat her, against all the odds, at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

“I think she hated me for taking something that she believes belong to her. I think she hated me for seeing her at her lowest moment. But mostly I think she hated me for hearing her cry. She’s never forgiven me for it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebrity watchers regularly descend upon Wimbledon for the tournament’s opening day, though some familiar faces are more recognisable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[109,19796,6358,79,1068,31635,31636,5838,144075,16,15,5068],"class_list":{"0":"post-654239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-david-beckham","9":"tag-david-beckham-instagram","10":"tag-maria-sharapova","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-tennis-section","14":"tag-tennis-latest","15":"tag-tennis-news","16":"tag-tennis-players","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wimbledon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115780749142817215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}