Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova recently talked about the time she decided to draw curtains on her tennis career, and the emotions attached with it, in an interview with inc.

“It’s a question I’ve addressed several times over the past few months before announcing my retirement. You have to search within yourself and what you feel, what your body tells you and also what your mind is saying,” said Sharapova, who has also worked as a model previously.

Sharapova went on to say that we can always turn to friends and family for advice from time to time, but only we have to take the final decision. It’s not easy but once we make up our mind, we can commit to it.

“You can have influences from people who are close to you and want to guide you towards the right decision, but to the in the end it is you who decide for your career and you must be 100% sure you do it this way.”

During the latter half of her career, Sharapova had been trying a lot to focus just on the game. But it was increasingly getting tougher for her and then she realized that it was finally time to move on.

“I realized that I was showing off but not as a tennis player by now and I had lost sight of the competition.

“It became a hard and difficult process to manage but together with my team I realized that it was necessary to move forward and I could use many other better and perhaps more meaningful ways. For many years, said the 2004 Wimbledon champion, I have focused only on this sport and I have given everything by applying and working hard to achieve results.”

After retirement, Sharapova has established herself as a successful entrepreneur. She is now a known name in fashion but is mostly known for starting a candy line called Sugarpova.

As far as her tennis career goes, Sharapova is one of the 10 players in the history of the sport to have completed the career Grand Slam. Her five Grand Slam wins included two at the Roland Garros.