172-523: Maria Yuryevna Sharapova ( Russian : Мария Юрьевна Шарапова , romanized : Mariya Yuryevna Sharapova , pronounced [mɐˈrʲijə ʂɐˈrapəvə] ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former world No. 1 tennis player. She competed on the WTA Tour from 2001 to 2020 and was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. She is one of ten women to achieve
344-649: A constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools. On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in
516-505: A municipal division , the City of Sochi is incorporated as Sochi Urban Okrug . Sochi is administratively subdivided into four city districts: Tsentralny City District , Lazarevsky City District , Khostinsky City District , and Adlersky City District . Tsentralny City District, comprising the central portion of, is by far the smallest out of four in terms of the area, and the other three have comparable areas, with Lazarevsky City District being
688-510: A new education law which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to
860-485: A railway which runs from Tuapse to Georgia within a kilometer or two of the coastline. Although this branch of the Northern Caucasus Railway may appear somewhat incongruous in the setting of beaches and sanatoriums, it is still operational and vital to the region's transportation infrastructure. Sochi was established as a fashionable resort area under Joseph Stalin , who had his favorite dacha built in
1032-575: A formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows: (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) Sochi Sochi (Russian: Сочи , IPA: [ˈsotɕɪ] , from Ubykh : Шъуача – seaside ) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River , along the Black Sea in Southern Russia , with
1204-558: A hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language, which is usually shown in writing not by a change of the consonant but rather by changing the following vowel. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels . Stress , which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically , though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к [ zamók , 'lock'] and за́мок [ zámok , 'castle']), or to indicate
1376-479: A language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service. In Lithuania , Russian has no official or legal status, but
1548-572: A lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic , Turkic , Persian , Arabic , and Hebrew . According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency. Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between
1720-598: A major part of the Circassians who lived on the territory of modern Sochi, were either killed or expelled to the Ottoman Empire in the Circassian Genocide . According to Russian sources, Sochi's population fell from roughly 100,000, to 98. Starting in 1866 the coast was actively colonized by Russians, Armenians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Greeks, Germans, Georgians and other people from inner Russia. In 1874–1891,
1892-474: A match in either. Then, as a wildcard at Wimbledon , she defeated 11th seed Jelena Dokić , her first win over a top-20 player, to reach the fourth round, where she lost in three sets to Svetlana Kuznetsova . By the end of September, Sharapova had already captured her first WTA title at a smaller event, the Japan Open Tennis Championships , before winning her second in her final tournament of
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#17328735999342064-607: A minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Azerbaijan , Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country. 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Georgia , Russian has no official status, but it
2236-451: A mixed group of goods, 178 pharmacies, 16 car dealerships, 20 stores at gas stations, 945 pavilions and kiosks have been opened. The provision of the population with retail space is 1,106.7 m (11,912 sq ft) per 1000 people. According to 2017 data, the annual trade turnover per capita in Sochi was 1.75 times higher than the average in Russia (373,527 rubles per year per person). At
2408-680: A population of 466,078 residents, and up to 600,000 residents in the urban area. The city covers an area of 176.77 square kilometers (68.25 sq mi), while the Greater Sochi Area covers over 3,502 square kilometers (1,352 sq mi). Sochi stretches across 145 kilometers (90 mi), and is the longest city in Europe, the fifth-largest city in the Southern Federal District , the second-largest city in Krasnodar Krai , and
2580-516: A qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society. In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in
2752-593: A sea resort. The first resort, "Kavkazskaya Riviera", opened on June 14, 1909 ( O.S. ). Sochi was granted town status in 1917. During the Russian Civil War , the littoral area saw sporadic armed clashes involving the Red Army , White movement forces, and the Democratic Republic of Georgia . As a result of the war Sochi has become Russian territory. In 1923, Sochi acquired one of its most distinctive features,
2924-721: A set entering the final, before losing to eighth seed Petra Kvitová , in straight sets. This marked her first final in over three years at a Grand Slam event. Sharapova started her summer hard-court season at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford , California. In a highly anticipated match, Sharapova lost to the eventual champion Serena Williams in the quarterfinals. In her next event at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Sharapova lost to Galina Voskoboeva in
3096-621: A substance that had been banned (effective 1 January 2016) by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). On 8 June 2016, she was suspended from playing tennis for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). On 4 October 2016, the suspension was reduced to 15 months, starting from the date of the failed test, as the Court of Arbitration for Sport found that she had committed "no significant fault" and that she had taken
3268-518: A successful bid for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in the city, spending around $ 51 billion in the process. In 2019, an area in the Imereti Lowlands was divided from Adlersky City District and formed as a separate urban-type settlement named Sirius . It was later designated as a federal territory . Greater Sochi is elongated along the Black Sea coast for 145 kilometers (90 mi). Sochi
3440-449: A teenager at a Grand Slam tournament , having lost to Agnieszka Radwańska during the same event in 2007. The loss made Sharapova's ranking go down to No. 32. The final stretch of the season brought Sharapova her first title of the year in Tokyo , after opponent Jelena Janković retired after being down 2–5 to Sharapova in the final. By virtue of that result, she was the recipient of a bye at
3612-540: A third-round loss to four-time champion Justine Henin. Sharapova began her preparations for Wimbledon at the Aegon Classic . She advanced to the final for the fourth time, where she lost to Li Na . As the 16th seed at Wimbledon , Sharapova lost in the fourth round to world No. 1 and eventual champion Serena Williams, despite having three set points in the opening set. The match was seen as another encouraging performance for Sharapova, with some stating their belief that she
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#17328735999343784-527: Is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%. In Estonia , Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook, and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics, and in 2022,
3956-475: Is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan . The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population. Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group. In Tajikistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under
4128-401: Is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian , and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level. Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound: Older letters of
4300-593: Is a post-posed definite article -to , -ta , -te similar to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian. In the Southern Russian dialects , instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to [ɪ] (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced [a] in such positions (e.g. несл и is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi] , not [nʲɪsˈlʲi] ) – this
4472-647: Is an East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family . It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians . It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union . Russian has remained an official language of the Russian Federation , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , and Tajikistan , and
4644-454: Is approximately 1,603 kilometers (996 mi) from Moscow . The city of Sochi borders with Tuapsinsky District in the northwest, with Apsheronsky District and with Maykopsky District of the Republic of Adygea in the north, with Mostovsky District in the northeast, and with Georgia / Abkhazia in the southeast. From the southwest, it is bordered by the Black Sea. The vast majority of
4816-485: Is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding , which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this Unicode extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards. The Russian language was first introduced to computing after the M-1 , and MESM models were produced in 1951. According to
4988-613: Is called yakanye ( яканье ). Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/ , a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/ , whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/ , /v/ , and final /l/ and /f/ , respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects). During the Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects. There
5160-563: Is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City , Philadelphia , Boston , Los Angeles , Nashville , San Francisco , Seattle , Spokane , Toronto , Calgary , Baltimore , Miami , Portland , Chicago , Denver , and Cleveland . In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially
5332-564: Is odd") – чу́дно ( chúdno – "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц ( molodéts – "well done!") – мо́лодец ( mólodets – "fine young man"), узна́ю ( uznáyu – "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ ( uznayú – "I recognize it"), отреза́ть ( otrezát – "to be cutting") – отре́зать ( otrézat – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра ( aféra , "scandal, affair"), гу́ру ( gúru , "guru"), Гарси́я ( García ), Оле́ша ( Olésha ), Фе́рми ( Fermi ), and to show which
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5504-401: Is one of the most popular tourism centres, as well as a prominent financial centre in Russia. Investments in the city's economy over the past 10 years have amounted to more than 1.1 trillion rubles. The turnover of medium and large enterprises in Sochi in 2017 amounted to more than 191.3 billion rubles. The increase in turnover in comparison with the previous year is 12%. In 2010, Sochi headed
5676-402: Is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language. In China , Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and
5848-569: Is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian. Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin , Polish , Dutch , German, French, Italian, and English, and to
6020-576: Is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook. In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006. Around 1.5 million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017. The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in
6192-610: Is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine , Moldova , the Caucasus , Central Asia , and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel . Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the most spoken native language in Europe , the most spoken Slavic language , as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia . It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers , and
6364-518: Is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? ( Tý syel pechenye? – "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? ( Ty syél pechenye? – "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? ( Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners. The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using
6536-400: Is traversed by many rivulets which give their names to the microdistricts of Matsesta ("flame-colored river"), Kudepsta, and Khosta ("the river of boars"). Adlersky City District , with an area of 1,352 square kilometers (522 sq mi) and a population of 76,534 people as of the 2010 Census, is the southernmost district of the city, located just north of the border with Abkhazia. Until
6708-461: The 2011 Lithuanian census , Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population. In Moldova , Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law. On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication. 50% of the population
6880-966: The Apollo–Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975. In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su . Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian
7052-604: The Auckland Open , she was top-seeded. She lost to the Hungarian veteran and eventual champion, Gréta Arn , in the quarterfinals. After that, Sharapova decided to split up with Joyce, ending a successful cooperation that brought her two Grand Slam victories and the world No. 1 ranking. Sharapova participated in the first Grand Slam of the season at the Australian Open , where she was the 14th seed, but lost to Andrea Petkovic in
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7224-596: The Bank of the West Classic , the semifinals at the LA Women's Championships , and finishing runner-up at the Rogers Cup to Elena Dementieva . At the US Open , Sharapova was seeded 29th. She found her way into the third round, defeating Tsvetana Pironkova and Christina McHale , all in straight sets. She was stunned in the third round by American teenager Melanie Oudin . It was the second time in Sharapova's career that she lost to
7396-597: The Bausch & Lomb Championships , having survived her longest-ever match, at 3 hours and 26 minutes long, in the third round against Anabel Medina Garrigues . The following week, at the Family Circle Cup , she lost in the quarterfinals to Serena Williams , her fourth consecutive loss to the American. In May, Sharapova regained the world No. 1 ranking because of Henin's sudden retirement from professional tennis and request to
7568-668: The China Open the following week. Sharapova then flew to Istanbul to prepare for the 2011 WTA Tour Championships , her first time qualifying since 2007. During the WTA Tour Championships, Sharapova withdrew during the round-robin stage after defeats against Samantha Stosur and Li Na, as a result of the ankle injury she had suffered in Tokyo. Sharapova ended the year as No. 4 in the world, her first top-10 finish since 2008 and first top-5 finish since 2007. Russian language Russian
7740-475: The China Open , but failed to capitalize on it, losing to Peng Shuai in the third round. She ultimately finished the season at world No. 14, having improved from No. 126 when she started her comeback from injury. After playing two exhibition tournaments in Asia, Sharapova officially began her season at the Australian Open , where she was upset in her first-round match against Maria Kirilenko . The loss meant that for
7912-705: The Circassians did not accept the Russian control over Circassia and kept resisting the newly established Russian outposts along the Circassian coast ( Adyghe : Адыгэ хы Iушъо ). Provision of weapons and ammunition from abroad to the Circassians caused a diplomatic conflict between the Russian Empire and the British Empire that occurred in 1836 over the mission of the Vixen . The Russians had no detailed knowledge of
8084-413: The Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business. In Turkmenistan , Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996. Among 12% of the population who grew up in
8256-545: The French Open and one each at the Australian Open , Wimbledon , and the US Open . She won 36 titles in total, including the year-end championships on her debut in 2004 . She also won three doubles titles. Although she played under the banner of Russia with the WTA, she has lived in and been a United States permanent resident since 1994. Sharapova failed a drug test at the 2016 Australian Open , testing positive for meldonium ,
8428-742: The IMG Academy in Bradenton , Florida. Bollettieri had previously trained players such as Andre Agassi , Monica Seles , and Anna Kournikova . With money tight, Yuri Sharapov borrowed the sum that would enable him and his daughter, neither of whom could speak English, to travel to the United States, which they did in 1994. Visa restrictions prevented Sharapova's mother from joining them for two years. Arriving in Florida with savings of US$ 700, Sharapova's father took various low-paying jobs to fund her lessons until she
8600-522: The Loo Microdistrict . Between the 13th and 15th centuries , the Republic of Genoa had the monopoly of the trade on the shores of the Black Sea, and established colonies and trading posts in the region of the present-day Sochi, the large ones were Layso and Costa . From the 14th to the 19th centuries, the region was dominated by the Abkhaz , Ubykh and Adyghe tribes, the current location of
8772-520: The Madrid Open , where she lost to Dominika Cibulková in the third round, and the Italian Open , where she was seeded seventh. She defeated top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals and sixth seed Samantha Stosur in the final to take home the title, marking her biggest clay-court victory to date. At the 2011 French Open , Sharapova was seeded seventh. She defeated French wildcard Caroline Garcia in
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#17328735999348944-425: The Sony Ericsson Open and the Family Circle Cup . Returning at the Madrid Open , Sharapova lost in the first round to Lucie Šafářová . She continued her French Open preparation at the Internationaux de Strasbourg as a wildcard, advancing to the final, where she beat Kristina Barrois . This was her first title on red clay and 22nd overall title. At the French Open , Sharapova's brief clay season culminated with
9116-443: The Sony Ericsson Open , before being beaten again by Serena Williams. A shoulder injury forced Sharapova to miss most of the clay-court season for the second consecutive year, resulting in her only tune-up for the French Open being the İstanbul Cup , where she lost in the semifinals to Aravane Rezaï . She reached the semifinals of the French Open for the first time in her career, before losing to Ana Ivanovic . On grass, Sharapova
9288-464: The US Open , and the WTA Tour Championships . In spite of that, she still finished the year ranked world No. 9. In October, after a failed attempt to rehabilitate the shoulder, Sharapova had surgery to repair the tear. Sharapova did not attempt to defend her Australian Open title, as she continued to recover from surgery. She returned to the sport in March, in the doubles tournament at the Indian Wells Open , but she and partner Elena Vesnina lost in
9460-409: The US Open . At the US Open itself, she reached the third round, before being eliminated by Mary Pierce . In order to regain confidence, Sharapova played and won consecutive titles in Asia in the fall, the Hansol Korea Open Tennis Championships and the Japan Open Tennis Championships . In October, Sharapova defeated Venus Williams en route to making the final of a Tier I event for the first time at
9632-476: The Ukrainian language in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration , media, education, science, culture, advertising, services . The law does not regulate private communication. A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On
9804-507: The United States Census , in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States. Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following: The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to
9976-426: The WTA that her own ranking be removed immediately. As the top-seeded player at the French Open , Sharapova was within two points of being knocked out by Evgeniya Rodina in the first round, before eventually winning. As a result of losing to eventual finalist Dinara Safina in the fourth round (after serving for the match), she relinquished her No. 1 ranking. Her dip in form continued at Wimbledon , where she lost in
10148-419: The Zurich Open , losing in the final to Alicia Molik . She then made her debut at the year-ending WTA Tour Championships . There, she won two of her three round-robin matches (including a win over US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova ) in order to advance to the semifinals, where she defeated Myskina. In the final, she defeated an injured Serena Williams, after trailing 4–0 in the final set. Sharapova started
10320-449: The career Grand Slam . She is also an Olympic medalist , having won silver in women's singles at the 2012 London Olympics . She has been considered as one of the best female tennis competitors of her generation. Sharapova became the world No. 1 for the first time on 22 August 2005 at the age of 18, becoming the first Russian woman to top the singles rankings, and last held the position on 8 July 2012. She won five major titles — two at
10492-428: The sixth-largest city on the Black Sea. Sochi hosted the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games in 2014. It hosted the alpine and Nordic Olympic events at the nearby ski resort of Rosa Khutor in Krasnaya Polyana . It also hosted the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix from 2014 until 2021. It was also one of the host cities for the 2018 FIFA World Cup . The general consensus (also recognized by
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#173287359993410664-818: The "Rating of Russian cities by quality of life" of the Urbanika Institute, and in 2014 and 2015 it ranked as 4th and 5th city respectively; experts noted the high rate of development of the city, large-scale investments on the eve of the 2014 Winter Olympics , favorable environmental conditions and high safety of residents. In 2012, Sochi topped the rating of "30 best cities for business" in Russia, by Forbes . Today, 705 classified accommodation facilities operate on its territory, including: 66 sanatoriums, 20 boarding houses and recreation centers and 618 hotels. 183 beach areas have been opened, more than 100 tourist facilities operate, about 70 excursion companies operate. Over 5.2 million tourists visited Sochi in 2016, 5.9% more than in 2015. The average annual occupancy rate of hotels
10836-441: The 17th century. In the nineteenth century, Islam spread to the region. Currently, Sochi is a large predominantly Christian city, though there are thought to be around 20,000 Muslims (5% of inhabitants) living there now (the majority are Adyghe ) plus other Eastern Caucasians , Turks, Tatars , and other smaller Muslim groups. A mosque was built in 2008 by United Arab Emirates in the central area of Bytkha, in addition to
11008-410: The 2010 Census showed the population of 63,894 people. It is the largest city district by area, covering some 1,744 square kilometers (673 sq mi) and comprising several microdistricts : Khostinsky City District , sprawling to the southeast from the city center, occupies approximately 374 square kilometers (144 sq mi), with a population of 65,229 as of the 2010 Census. The district
11180-405: The 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries. In Armenia , Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as
11352-412: The Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home
11524-409: The Black Sea and are cut by the rivers. The biggest rivers in Sochi are the Mzymta and the Shakhe . Other rivers include the Ashe, the Psezuapse, the Sochi , the Khosta, and the Matsesta . The Psou River makes the border with Abkhazia. The northeastern part of the city belongs to the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve which is a World Heritage Site spanning areas in Krasnodar Krai and Adygea. Almost
11696-409: The Great and developed from the Moscow ( Middle or Central Russian ) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language. Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution , the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However,
11868-468: The Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent ( знак ударения ) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress . For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к ( zamók – "lock") – за́мок ( zámok – "castle"), сто́ящий ( stóyashchy – "worthwhile") – стоя́щий ( stoyáshchy – "standing"), чудно́ ( chudnó – "this
12040-411: The Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada , Australia, and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers , after English, Mandarin, Hindi -Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese. Russian is one of the six official languages of
12212-807: The Russian alphabet include ⟨ ѣ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ е ⟩ ( /je/ or /ʲe/ ); ⟨ і ⟩ and ⟨ ѵ ⟩ , which both merged to ⟨ и ⟩ ( /i/ ); ⟨ ѳ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ф ⟩ ( /f/ ); ⟨ ѫ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ у ⟩ ( /u/ ); ⟨ ѭ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ю ⟩ ( /ju/ or /ʲu/ ); and ⟨ ѧ ⟩ and ⟨ ѩ ⟩ , which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨ я ⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/ . While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ ъ ⟩ and ⟨ ь ⟩ originally indicated
12384-458: The Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from
12556-694: The Soviet Union. Following Russia's loss of the traditionally popular resorts of the Crimean Peninsula ( transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 by Nikita Khrushchev ), Sochi emerged as the unofficial summer capital of the country. In 1961, Soviet officials decided to expand the city limits by forming a Greater Sochi which extended for 140 kilometers from the southern parts of Tuapse to Adler . In July 2005, Russia submitted
12728-454: The Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent. In Uzbekistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite. Russian
12900-460: The United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics. In Belarus , Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus . 77% of
13072-588: The age of just 13. She was then given a special distinction, the Rising Star Award, awarded to players of exceptional promise. Sharapova made her professional debut in 2001 on her 14th birthday on 19 April, and played her first WTA tournament at the Pacific Life Open in 2002, winning a match before losing to Monica Seles . Due to restrictions on how many professional events she could play, Sharapova went to hone her game in junior tournaments, where she reached
13244-406: The area until Baron Feodor Tornau investigated the coastal route from Gelendzhik to Gagra , and across the mountains to Kabarda , in the 1830s. In 1838, the fort of Alexandria, renamed Navaginsky a year later, was founded at the mouth of the Sochi River as part of the Black Sea coastal line, a chain of seventeen fortifications set up to protect the area from recurring Circassian resistance. At
13416-411: The biggest. In terms of the population, Tsentralny City District is approximately twice as big as each of the other three city districts. Tsentralny City District , or central Sochi, covers an area of 32 square kilometers (12 sq mi) and, as of the 2010 Census , has a population of 137,677. The highlights include: Lazarevsky City District lies to the northwest from the city center;
13588-403: The broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages. The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language ( современный русский литературный язык – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter
13760-412: The city amounted to 19.4 billion rubles. The distribution of energy, gas and water accounted for 11.9 billion rubles, the largest enterprises in the industry are: Adler TPP and Sochinskaya TPP. Processing industries accounted for 3.3 billion rubles. The volume of shipment of minerals amounted to 76 million rubles, the largest enterprise in the industry is Firma Sochinerud. In the manufacturing industry,
13932-441: The city in 2016 for medium and large enterprises amounted to 7 billion rubles (about 36% of the total turnover). 1450 public catering establishments were opened in Sochi, with a total of 90473 seats. The market of paid services to the population in 2016 amounted to 34.3 million rubles; the industry employs 3393 people, with a total of 1083 enterprises. The volume of goods shipped in 2016 for medium and large industrial enterprises of
14104-609: The city of Sochi (Ş̂açə) known as Ubykhia was part of historical Circassia , and was controlled by the native people of the local mountaineer clans of the north-west Caucasus, nominally under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire , which was their principal trading partner in the Islamic world. The coastline was occupied by Russia in 1829 as a result of the Russo-Circassian War and the Russo-Turkish War , 1828–1829; however,
14276-539: The city's own website ) is that the name "Sochi" ( Russian : Сочи ) is the Russified form of the Circassian "Ş̂açə" ( Adyghe : Шъачэ ) which in turn is of Ubykh-Circassian origin, coming from the Ubykh name "Ş̂uaça" ( Ubykh : Шъуача ). It is a compound made up from the two Ubykh words "шъуа" (sea) and "ча" (side) and roughly translates to "Seaside/coast". There are other claims and theories, according to Georgian sources,
14448-409: The city. Sochi also has the region's most northerly tea plantations . Sochi has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ), at the lower elevations. Its average annual temperature is 18.9 °C (66.0 °F) during the day and 11.5 °C (52.7 °F) at night. In the coldest months—January and February—the average temperature is about 10 °C (50 °F) during
14620-411: The city. Stalin's study, complete with a wax statue of the leader, is now open to the public. During Stalin's reign the coast became dotted with imposing Neoclassical buildings, exemplified by the opulent Rodina and Ordzhonikidze sanatoriums. The centerpiece of this early period is Shchusev 's Constructivist Institute of Rheumatology (1927–1931). The area was continuously developed until the demise of
14792-468: The country. The retail trade turnover for medium and large enterprises (accounting for about 30% of the total turnover) in the city in 2016 amounted to 57.2 billion rubles. On the territory of the city there are 8,769 objects of the consumer sphere, of which: 5013 are stationary retail enterprises, 1450 are catering enterprises, 335 are wholesale enterprises, and 1083 are service enterprises. In Sochi, 1807 grocery stores, 2,708 non-food stores, 294 stores of
14964-562: The country. There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus . See also Russian language in Israel . Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan . In Vietnam , Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English. The Russian language
15136-473: The day and 16 °C (61 °F) at night) in the period from May to October. Sochi is unique among larger Russian cities as having some aspects of a subtropical resort. About two million people visited Greater Sochi each summer as of 2014, when the city is home to the annual film festival " Kinotavr " and a getaway for Russia's elite. A UNESCO World Heritage Site , the 2,957 square kilometers (731,000 acres) Caucasus Nature Reserve , lies just north from
15308-409: The day and 4 °C (39 °F) at night. Average annual precipitation is about 1,700 millimeters (67 in). Sochi lies at 8b/9a hardiness zone , so the city supports different types of palm trees. Sochi is situated on the same latitude as Nice but strong cold winds from the south make winters less warm. In fact, temperatures drop below freezing every winter. The highest temperature recorded
15480-401: The day, above 3 °C (37 °F) at night and the average sea temperature is about 9 °C (48 °F). In the warmest months—July and August—the temperature typically ranges from 25 to 29 °C (77 to 84 °F) during the day, about 20 °C (68 °F) at night and the average sea temperature is about 23–27 °C (73–81 °F). Yearly sunshine hours are around 2,200. Generally,
15652-468: The economist-geographer Natalia Zubarevich , Sochi, being a "recreational capital", along with the largest industrial centers, acts as a "motor" of development that determines the prospects and directions of the country's development. The economy of Sochi is based on trade, construction, resort and tourism. Its structure for 2015: retail trade (59%), construction (15%), resorts and tourism (11%), industry (10.6%), transport (3.5%) and agriculture (0.9%). Sochi
15824-545: The establishment of Greater Sochi in 1961, it was administered as a separate town, which had its origin in an ancient Sadz village and a medieval Genoese trading post. Among the natural wonders of the district is the Akhshtyr Gorge with a 160-meter-long cave that contains traces of human habitation. The upland part of the district includes a network of remote mountain villages ( auls ), the Estonian colony at Estosadok , and
15996-571: The face of several fashion houses , most notably Cole Haan . Since February 2007, she has been a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador , concerned specifically with the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme . In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time and in March 2012 was named one of the " 100 Greatest of All Time " by Tennis Channel . According to Forbes , she
16168-413: The factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry,
16340-451: The final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian . From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only. On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from 1 January 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM ) should be only in Latvian or
16512-457: The final, Sharapova upset top seed and defending champion Serena Williams to win her first Grand Slam singles title, and become the third-youngest woman to win the Wimbledon title, behind only Lottie Dod and Martina Hingis . Sharapova also became the second Russian woman (after Anastasia Myskina had won the year's previous major at Roland Garros ) to win a Grand Slam singles title. The victory
16684-477: The final. As the defending champion at Wimbledon , Sharapova reached the semifinals without dropping a set and losing a service game just once, extending her winning streak on grass to 24 matches. However, she was then beaten by eventual champion Venus Williams . Sharapova had far fewer points to defend, and so she became the first Asian and Russian woman to hold the world No. 1 ranking on 22 August 2005. Her reign lasted only one week, however, as Davenport reclaimed
16856-545: The finals by defeating Jelena Janković in the semifinals, and defeated Ana Ivanovic in the final to win her third Grand Slam title, having not dropped a set all tournament. After the Australian Open, Sharapova extended her winning streak to 18 matches. This run encompassed two wins including at the Tier I Qatar Open . Her winning streak was ended in the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open by Kuznetsova. In April, Sharapova won
17028-495: The finals of the girls' singles events at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2002. She was the youngest girl ever to reach the final of the Australian Open junior championship at 14 years and 9 months. Sharapova reached No. 6 in the ITF junior world singles ranking on 21 October 2002. In all, she won three junior singles tournaments and was runner-up at five, including two junior Grand Slam events. Her win–loss record in junior competition
17200-586: The first Russian Orthodox church , St. Michael's Church , was constructed, and the Dakhovsky settlement was renamed Dakhovsky Posad on April 13, 1874 ( O.S. ). In February 1890, the Sochi Lighthouse was constructed. In 1896, the Dakhovsky Posad was renamed Sochi Posad (after the name of local river) and incorporated into the newly formed Black Sea Governorate . In 1900–1910, Sochi burgeoned into
17372-561: The first round. After this, Sharapova withdrew from further singles tournaments, resulting in her standing in the world rankings being severely affected. She dropped out of the top 100 for the first time in six years in May, the nadir being world No. 126. Playing her first singles tournament in nearly ten months, Sharapova made the quarterfinals of the clay-court Warsaw Open in May, losing to finalist Alona Bondarenko . The following week, in her first Grand Slam appearance since her surgery, she reached
17544-496: The first time at the Italian Open , where she lost to Patty Schnyder . Sharapova would have become world No. 1 for the first time had she won the tournament. Sharapova then reached the quarterfinals of the French Open for the second consecutive year, before losing to eventual champion Henin. On grass, Sharapova won her third title of the year when she successfully defended her title at the DFS Classic , defeating Jelena Janković in
17716-525: The first time since 2003, Sharapova had lost her opening match at a Grand Slam event. She then rebounded by winning a smaller American event, the Cellular South Cup , her 21st career WTA title and first of the year. At the Indian Wells Open , Sharapova lost in the third round to Zheng Jie , aggravating a bruised bone on her right elbow in the process, which resulted in her eventual withdrawal from
17888-445: The first time since 2004. She qualified for the eight-woman year-end Sony Ericsson Championships because of a withdrawal by Venus Williams before the start of the tournament. Despite having not previously won a match in two months, Sharapova topped her round-robin group at the tournament, after winning all three of her matches, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova , Ana Ivanovic, and Daniela Hantuchová . She then defeated Anna Chakvetadze in
18060-564: The fourth round. She also had to pull out of the Dubai Championships and the Qatar Open because of an ear infection. Sharapova returned to the tour in March by taking part in the 2011 BNP Paribas Open , where she was seeded 16th. She defeated former world No. 1, Dinara Safina, in the fourth round en route to the semifinal, where she lost to world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki. At Key Biscayne , Sharapova defeated 26th seed Alexandra Dulgheru in
18232-617: The generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to
18404-480: The government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries. Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and
18576-649: The late 19th century. The rest are Armenians from Georgia (particularly from Abkhazia and Samtskhe-Javakheti ) and Armenia (especially from Shirak Province due to the 1988 earthquake ). The Byzantine Empire brought Christianity to the Sochi region in the Middle Ages . The region was relatively isolated before 1829. In the North, a few hundred Sunni Muslim Shapsugs , a part of the Circassian nation, lived around Tkhagapsh, near Lazarevskoye . The Circassians (also known as Adyghe) converted to Islam from Christianity in
18748-472: The later was unified under the single Georgian monarchy in 11th-century, forming one of the Saeristavo , known as Tskhumi extending its possessions up to Nicopsis . The Christian settlements along the coast were destroyed by the invading Alans , Khazars , Mongols and other nomadic empires whose control of the region was slight. The northern wall of an 11th-century Byzantine basilica still stands in
18920-432: The longest WTA tour final of the year. She subsequently moved up to world No. 4, her highest ranking since August 2008 and the highest since her comeback from her shoulder injury. Sharapova entered the US Open , where she was seeded third. She beat Heather Watson , and Anastasiya Yakimova , to reach the third round. She was then upset by Flavia Pennetta . However, because of the fall of Kim Clijsters and Vera Zvonareva in
19092-523: The manifesto of Emperor Alexander II , read aloud by Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia . The city was the administrative capital of the Sochinsky Okrug . By the end of Russo-Circassian War , the Russian Empire aimed to systematically destroy the native Circassian people in the region and several atrocities were committed by the Russian forces. As a result, almost all Ubykhs and
19264-516: The northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region . Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964. In Kazakhstan , Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of
19436-544: The old mosque being around 40 km (25 miles) north of the city center in the Adyghe aul of Tkhagapsh. There are around thirty Russian Orthodox churches, the largest being St. Michael's, and two monasteries, plus two Catholic churches, one in the center of Sochi and the other in Lazarevskoye. The Armenian community gathers in about ten churches. Sochi is an economic centre of Krasnodar Krai and Russia. According to
19608-515: The other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east . But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion , their number dropped by almost half. According to
19780-455: The other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect , although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century,
19952-715: The outbreak of the Crimean War , the garrison was evacuated from Navaginsky to prevent its capture by the Turks, who effected a landing on Cape Adler soon after. The last battle of the Russo-Circassian War , the Battle of Qbaada , took place in 1864, and the Dakhovsky fort was established on the site of the Navaginsky fort. The end of the Caucasian War was proclaimed at Qbaada tract (modern Krasnaya Polyana ) on June 2 (21 May O.S. ), 1864, by
20124-537: The overwhelming share of food production enterprises, which account for 92.3% of the production volume. Large enterprises: Sochi meat-packing plant, Trout-breeding farm, Primorskaya quail farm, Sochi bakery and Lazarevsky bakery. The volume of shipped agricultural products in 2016 amounted to 49.8 million rubles. Vegetables, citrus fruits, fruits (including heat-loving crops such as feijoa, medlar, kiwi) and flowers are cultivated by large agricultural enterprises: Verlioka, Voskhod and Pobeda. The only producer of poultry meat
20296-446: The parliament approved a bill to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools and kindergartens will start in the 2024-2025 school year. In Latvia , Russian is officially considered a foreign language. 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 18 February 2012, Latvia held
20468-453: The peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity. This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky , who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or
20640-455: The population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language. In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025. In Kyrgyzstan , Russian
20812-466: The population of Sochi lives in a narrow strip along the coast and is organized in independent microdistricts (formerly settlements). The biggest of these microdistricts, from the northwest to the southeast, are Lazarevskoye , Loo , Dagomys , central Sochi ( Tsentralny City District ), Khosta , Matsesta , and Adler . The whole city is located on the slopes of the Western Caucasus which descend to
20984-418: The population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2019 Belarusian census , out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in
21156-475: The pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/ , /ĭ/ . Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz , and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš' . Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration
21328-466: The proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names. Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family . It is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language used in Kievan Rus' , which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language , its closest relatives are Ukrainian , Belarusian , and Rusyn ,
21500-471: The quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time at the French Open , losing there to Paola Suárez . Sharapova won the third title of her career at the Wimbledon warm-up DFS Classic , defeating Tatiana Golovin in the final. Seeded 13th and aged 17 at Wimbledon, she reached her first Grand Slam semifinal by defeating Ai Sugiyama . There, she defeated fifth seed and former champion Lindsay Davenport . In
21672-465: The quarterfinals of the French Open , before her run was ended by Dominika Cibulková . During the summer grass-court season, Sharapova played in Birmingham , losing in the semifinals to Li Na. Sharapova then played at Wimbledon as the 24th seed. She was upset in the second round by Gisela Dulko in three sets. Sharapova enjoyed considerable success in the summer months, reaching the quarterfinals at
21844-412: The quarterfinals, in a match lasting 3 hours and 28 minutes. In the semifinals, Sharapova took her Australian Open reprisal on Andrea Petkovic by defeating her. In the final, she was defeated by Victoria Azarenka , despite a late comeback in the second set. With this result, Sharapova returned to the top 10 for the first time since February 2009. During the clay-court season, Sharapova participated in
22016-565: The ranking to Davenport. Sharapova started 2006 by losing in the semifinals of the Australian Open in three sets to Henin, also losing a rematch several weeks later at the Dubai Tennis Championships , having defeated former world No. 1 Martina Hingis and world No. 3 Lindsay Davenport in earlier rounds of the tournament. Sharapova claimed her first title in nine months at the Tier I tournament in Indian Wells, defeating Hingis in
22188-474: The rankings, Sharapova climbed to world No. 2. Sharapova's next tournament was the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan. As second seed, she received a bye into the second round, where she beat Tamarine Tanasugarn . She then beat 13th seed Julia Görges , before retiring against Petra Kvitová in the quarterfinal, 3–4, after slipping on the baseline, suffering an ankle injury. This also forced her to withdraw from
22360-439: The regional effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident , they left their hometown shortly before Maria was born. In 1990, when Sharapova was three, the family moved to Sochi , Russia. Her father, Yuri, befriended Aleksandr Kafelnikov, whose son Yevgeny would go on to win two Grand Slam singles titles and become Russia's first world No. 1 ranked tennis player. Aleksandr gave Sharapova her first tennis racquet in 1991 when she
22532-491: The respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents). In Ukraine , Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed
22704-445: The same time, it exceeds the annual trade turnover per capita in all cities with a population of over one million, including Saint Petersburg and Moscow. A high trade turnover is ensured by both a large flow of tourists and a high average wage in the city. The annual retail turnover generated by permanent residents is about 96.2 billion rubles (52%). Tourists generate about 87.83 billion rubles (48%). The turnover of public catering in
22876-417: The season as world No. 1 had she won the event. As it was, she finished ranked world No. 2, her best year-end finish yet. Sharapova was the top seed at the Australian Open due to top-ranked Justine Henin's withdrawal. After being two points away from defeat in the first round against Camille Pin , she went on to reach the final of the tournament for the first time, but was routed there by Serena Williams who
23048-595: The season, the Bell Challenge in Quebec City. To cap off her first full season as a professional, she was awarded the WTA Newcomer of the Year honor. Sharapova was defeated in the third round of the Australian Open by sixth seed Anastasia Myskina . She later reached the semifinals at the Cellular South Cup , where she lost to eventual champion Vera Zvonareva . During the spring clay-court season, Sharapova entered
23220-527: The second round to world No. 154 Alla Kudryavtseva . This was her earliest loss at Wimbledon, and at any Grand Slam in almost five years. Sharapova withdrew from the Rogers Cup tournament in August following a shoulder injury. An MRI scan revealed that she had been suffering from a rotator cuff tear since April, forcing her out of all tournaments for the rest of the season, including the Beijing Olympics ,
23392-517: The second round, despite trailing 3–6, 1–4, before winning the last 11 games of the match. In the quarterfinals, she defeated 15th seed Andrea Petkovic, marking her first Grand Slam semifinal since her comeback from the career-threatening shoulder injury. She then lost to sixth seed and eventual champion, Li Na , in the semifinals, ending her clay season with a win–loss record of 12–2. At the Wimbledon Championships , Sharapova had not dropped
23564-417: The second set, but could not convert them. At the US Open , Sharapova was the 14th seed. She made it to the fourth round, where she played top seed and 2009 finalist Caroline Wozniacki and lost. Sharapova's last two tournaments of the season ended in disappointment. She played in the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where she was upset in the first round by 39-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm . Her last tournament of
23736-518: The semifinals and Elena Dementieva in the final. She reached the final in Miami before losing to Kuznetsova. Sharapova returned for the French Open . There, after saving match points in defeating Mashona Washington in the first round, she was eliminated by Dinara Safina in the fourth round. On grass, Sharapova was unsuccessful in her attempt to win in Birmingham for the third consecutive year, losing in
23908-403: The semifinals to Jamea Jackson . Despite that, she was among the title favorites at Wimbledon , where the eventual champion Mauresmo ended up beating her in the semifinals. Sharapova claimed her second title of the year at the Tier I Acura Classic , defeating Clijsters for the first time in the final. As the third seed at the US Open , Sharapova defeated top seed Mauresmo for the first time in
24080-629: The semifinals, and then followed up by beating second seed Justine Henin to win her second Grand Slam singles title. That autumn, Sharapova won titles in back-to-back weeks at the Zurich Open and the Generali Ladies Linz . By winning all three of her round-robin matches at the WTA Tour Championships , she extended her win streak to 19 matches, before it was snapped in the semifinals by eventual champion Henin. Sharapova would have finished
24252-445: The semifinals. In the final, she lost to world No. 1 Henin in a match that lasted 3 hours and 24 minutes. Sharapova reached the top 5 again to end the year. Sharapova was seeded fifth at the Australian Open , but was not considered a favorite. Nevertheless, she defeated former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the second round, and then world No. 1 Henin in the quarterfinals, ending the latter's 32-match winning streak. She proceeded to
24424-624: The ski resort of Krasnaya Polyana which hosted the events (Alpine and Nordic) of the 2014 Winter Olympics . Also located here is a trout fishery and a breeding nursery for great apes . Sochi has an ethnic Russian majority (~70%). The city is home to a sizable Armenian minority (~20%), which is especially notable in the Adlersky City District where they compose more than half of the total population. Most of Sochi's Armenian community are descendants of Hamshen Armenians from Turkey's northeastern Black Sea coast, who began arriving in
24596-645: The substance "based on a doctor's recommendation... with good faith belief that it was appropriate and compliant with the relevant rules". She returned to the WTA Tour on 26 April 2017 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix . Sharapova has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue . She has appeared in many advertisements, including those for Nike, Prince, and Canon, and has been
24768-418: The summer season lasts three months, from June to September. Two months—April and November—are transitional; sometimes temperatures reach 20 °C (68 °F), with an average temperature of around 16 °C (61 °F) during the day and 9 °C (48 °F) at night. December, January, February and March are the coldest months, with average temperature (of these four months) 11 °C (52 °F) during
24940-626: The survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language. In
25112-459: The syntax of Russian dialects." After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930: The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to
25284-489: The third round, marking her 100th career loss. Sharapova then contested the Cincinnati Open . As the fourth seed, she received a bye into the second round. On the way to her fourth final of the year, she beat Anastasia Rodionova , 14th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, tenth seed Samantha Stosur, and 2nd seed Vera Zvonareva. In the final, she defeated fellow former world No. 1 Jelena Janković , in 2 hours and 49 minutes, making it
25456-539: The top 20 on the WTA world rankings as a result of reaching the third round of the Qatar Telecom German Open and the Internazionali BNL d'Italia , both of which were Tier I events. At the latter event, she defeated a player ranked in the top 10 for the first time with a straight-sets win over world No. 10 and 2004 French Open finalist Elena Dementieva . Later that clay-court season, she went on to make
25628-495: The top ranking after winning the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament. As the top seed at the US Open , Sharapova lost in the semifinals to Kim Clijsters , meaning she had lost to the eventual champion in every Grand Slam of the season. However, she once again leapfrogged Davenport to take the world No. 1 ranking on 12 September 2005. She retained it for six weeks, but after playing few tournaments while injured, she again relinquished
25800-770: The two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern , Central (or Middle), and Southern , with Moscow lying in the Central region. The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye ( оканье ). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic * ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/ , respectively. Another Northern dialectal morphological feature
25972-506: The use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008). According to
26144-541: The whole area of the Greater Sochi, with the exception of the coast and of the area which belong to the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve, are included into Sochi National Park . Sochi has a humid subtropical climate with mild winters (average 11 °C (52 °F) during the day and 4 °C (39 °F) at night) in the period from December to March and warm summers (average 24 °C (75 °F) during
26316-660: The whole area was conquered by Cimmerian , Scythian and Sarmatian invaders, the Zygii (Proto- Adyghe ) people lived in Lesser Abkhazia under the Kingdom of Pontus , then the Roman Empire 's influence in antiquity . From the 6th to the 11th centuries, the area successively belonged to the Georgian kingdoms of Lazica and Abkhazia , who built a dozen churches within the city boundaries,
26488-1110: The word comes from the Georgian word for the fir tree, "soch'i" ( Georgian : სოჭი ). Colchis 13th century BC–63 AD [REDACTED] Achaemenid Empire 511 BC–330 BC Kingdom of Pontus 111 BC–62 BC [REDACTED] Roman Empire 62 BC–337 AD Kingdom of Lazica 337–697 [REDACTED] Byzantine Empire 697–786 [REDACTED] Kingdom of Abkhazia 778–1008 [REDACTED] Kingdom of Georgia 1008–1490 [REDACTED] Mongol Empire 1242–1259 [REDACTED] Principality of Abkhazia 1491–1829 [REDACTED] Ottoman Empire 1578–1829 [REDACTED] Circassia 1829–1864 [REDACTED] Russian Empire 1864–1917 [REDACTED] Russian Republic 1917–1918 [REDACTED] Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic 1918 [REDACTED] Georgian Democratic Republic 1918–1919 [REDACTED] South Russia 1919–1920 [REDACTED] Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic 1920–1991 [REDACTED] Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic 1922–1991 [REDACTED] Russian Federation 1991–present Before
26660-421: The world rankings for the first time. In the semifinals of the Tier I Pacific Life Open , Sharapova was defeated by Lindsay Davenport , the first time she had failed to win a game in a match. She defeated former world No. 1 players Justine Henin and Venus Williams to reach the final at the Tier I NASDAQ-100 Open , where she lost to Kim Clijsters . Sharapova made the semifinals of a clay-court tournament for
26832-751: The world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers . Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station , one of the six official languages of the United Nations , as well as the fourth most widely used language on the Internet . Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script ; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has
27004-535: The year at the Australian Open , where she defeated fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the second Grand Slam semifinal of her career. Sharapova held three match points in the third set of her semifinal match, before losing to eventual champion Serena Williams. In February, Sharapova won back-to-back tournaments, the Toray Pan Pacific Open and the Qatar Total Open , allowing her to reach number 3 in
27176-555: The year was the China Open , where she lost in the second round to fellow Russian Elena Vesnina . She ended the year at number 18 in the world. It was announced that Sharapova would bring in Thomas Högstedt as a coach for the 2011 season, joining Michael Joyce . On 5 December, Sharapova won an exhibition match against world No. 2 Vera Zvonareva in Monterrey, Mexico. In Sharapova's first official Australian Open warm-up tournament at
27348-462: Was 39.4 °C (102.9 °F), on July 30, 2000, and the lowest temperature recorded was −13.4 °C (7.9 °F) on January 25, 1892. Within the framework of administrative divisions , it is, together with one urban-type settlement ( Krasnaya Polyana ) and seventy-nine rural localities , incorporated as the City of Sochi —an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts . As
27520-493: Was 47–9. Her best results in the Junior Grand Slam tournaments were the finals of the 2002 Australian Open , finals of the 2002 Wimbledon Championships , third round of the 2002 French Open , and second round of the 2001 US Open . From 2003, Sharapova played a full season and made a rapid climb into the top 50 by the end of the year. She made her debuts at both the Australian Open and the French Open , but failed to win
27692-584: Was approaching the form that would see her contending for Grand Slams once more, and Sharapova herself stating that she felt that she was "in a much better spot than I was last year." During the US Open Series , Sharapova made two straight finals, losing to Victoria Azarenka at the Bank of the West Classic , and to Kim Clijsters at the Western & Southern Open . In the latter match, Sharapova held three match points while leading 5–3 on Clijsters's serve late in
27864-418: Was at 77%, but varies by season. The importance of tourism for the development of Sochi is also determined by the financial revenues from the industry. According to statistics, in 2015, tourism revenues amounted to about 30 billion rubles. At the same time, throughout the country, revenues from the industry amounted to 161 billion rubles; thus, the tourist industry of the city occupies 18.6% of the total market of
28036-405: Was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Alaska , Russian
28208-421: Was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2014 Moldovan census , Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian. According to the 2010 census in Russia , Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of
28380-429: Was four, whereupon she began practicing regularly with her father at a local park. Maria took her first tennis lessons with veteran Russian coach Yuri Yutkin, who was instantly impressed when he saw her play, noting her "exceptional hand-eye coordination ". In 1993, at the age of six, Sharapova attended a tennis clinic in Moscow run by Martina Navratilova , who recommended professional training with Nick Bollettieri at
28552-452: Was hailed by the media as "the most stunning upset in memory", with other writers commenting on her arrival as a serious challenger to the Williams' dominance at Wimbledon. She entered the top 10 in the rankings for the first time as a result of the win. Following her Wimbledon win, attention and interest in Sharapova in the media greatly increased, a rise in popularity dubbed "Maria Mania." She won three of six matches in her preparations for
28724-417: Was old enough to be admitted to the academy. Initially, she trained with Rick Macci. In 1995, however, she was signed by IMG , who agreed to pay the annual tuition fee of $ 35,000 for Sharapova to stay at the academy, allowing her to finally enroll at the age of 9. Sharapova first hit tennis fame in November 2000, when she won the Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships in the girls' 16 division at
28896-401: Was ranked world No. 81 at the time. After reaching the final, Sharapova recaptured the world No. 1 ranking. She held it for seven weeks, surrendering it back to Henin after failing to defend her title at the Pacific Life Open , instead losing in the fourth round to Vera Zvonareva after struggling with a hamstring injury. The following fortnight, she defeated Venus Williams in the third round of
29068-404: Was runner-up to Jelena Janković at the DFS Classic . Following that, she experienced her earliest Wimbledon loss since 2003 by losing in the fourth round to eventual champion Venus Williams. Sharapova clinched the US Open Series by defending her title at the Acura Classic , her only championship of the year, and reaching the semifinals in Los Angeles. In her US Open title defense, Sharapova
29240-417: Was the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years and earned US$ 285 million (including prize money) since she turned professional in 2001. In 2018, she launched a new program to mentor women entrepreneurs. Maria Yuryevna Sharapova was born on 19 April 1987, in Nyagan , Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Her parents, Yuri Sharapov and Yelena, are from Gomel , Byelorussian SSR. Concerned about
29412-402: Was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese. Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between
29584-417: Was upset in her third-round match by 30th seed Agnieszka Radwańska , making it her earliest exit at a Grand Slam singles tournament since the 2004 US Open , where she lost in the same round. Following the US Open loss, Sharapova did not play again until the Kremlin Cup in October, where she lost her opening match to Victoria Azarenka . Shortly after this, she fell out of the top 5 in the world rankings for
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