Maria Sharapova goes quietly into retirement – but it will not be the last we hear of her

Either way, a significant PR operation was launched to salvage her reputation. Blame was cast elsewhere; interviews carefully stage-managed. Humility was almost totally lacking, and Sharapova leaves the sport with many questions still unanswered.

She will not miss her peers, and they will not miss her. There were some notable exceptions, but the sparse number of social media tributes that greeted her retirement was striking.

Only Sharapova will know if that rankles even someone who wrote in an autobiography that she has “no interest in making friends on my battlefield”.

You had to admire her bloody mindedness, and her extreme desire to win. And, at times, it was hard not to enjoy her undiplomatic language and withering responses.

When quizzed about her high-pitched grunting being a distraction to other players, she once replied: “No-one important enough has told me to change.”

And when told Agnieszka Radwanska had expressed her displeasure (shortly after exiting the Australian Open), Sharapova replied with a cutting: “Isn’t she already back in Poland?”

The 32-year-old says she is now ready to compete on a different type of terrain.

Sponsors flocked to her for the majority of her career, with business magazine Forbes estimating she was the highest earning female athlete 11 years in a row.

You sense she has a shrewd business brain, although her “premium candy” line Sugarpova – perhaps a dubious product for an athlete to promote – may need a serious rebrand if it is ever to prosper in a more health-conscious world.

Sharapova may be going quietly into retirement, but it certainly will not be the last we hear of her.