On Saturday, after dethroning Centre Court queen Serena Williams, she now knows that Dad Yuri's gut-wrenching decision to turn his family upside-down was a winner.

From the cold desolation of Siberia to the land of plenty in Florida, Sharapova and her parents understand sacrifice.

"My dad and my mom have been through my whole career with me," the 17-year-old Russian beauty said after beating Lindsay Davenport in the semifinal here.

"They've just been always trying to do the best for me and always giving up things in their lives just to do the best for me. They've been with me through the hard times and through the good times."

No time could have been harder when, aged just seven, Sharapova was separated from her mother, Yelena, for two years.

Encouraged by comments about his daughter's talent from the great Martina Navratilova at a junior tournament, Yuri arrived on the doorstep of Nick Bolletieri's Bradenton tennis academy with little more than a few hundred dollars -- and Maria.

Bolletieri took the youngster in but she was an outcast, speaking little English and living in a dorm with girls much older than her.

She was bullied and could not turn to her mother, who was unable to get a US visa straight away. But she did have her father during that difficult time.

And, like many young women on the tour before her, Sharapova is already facing questions about whether her father is too involved in her career -- a notion she vigorously denied.

"I don't know why you would say that my dad is too involved in my tennis," Sharapova said.

"He has done everything for me in my life. He hasn't missed one day on my practice court.

"I believe in him so much and I love him and my mom too. I wouldn't be here without them."

Sharapova may still be child-like in some ways, but the youngster has a sharp awareness of the way the world works that is mature beyond her years.

She insists on her merits as a tennis player and rejects the notion that she be typecast as a pin-up in the mould of Anna Kournikova.

"The move to the US was an amazing sacrifice. I mean, you either win or you lose. I owe a lot to my parents," she said earlier in the tournament.

And the experience seems to have made her the toughest of fighters - a fact in evidence at this event.

The teenager put up a gritty fight to beat Davenport 2-6, 7-6, 6-1 from a set and 3-1 down in the semifinal and then won from the front 6-1, 6-4 against a shell-shocked Williams in the final.

The Russian was also forced to claw back from a set down in her quarterfinal against Ai Sugiyama, taking just over two hours to see off her Japanese opponent, 5-7, 7-5, 6-1.

Sharapova is the first Russian, man or woman, to win at Wimbledon and she follows in the footsteps of compatriot Anastasia Myskina who won the French Open in Paris last month.