Tennis legend Maria Sharapova has faced some of the toughest opponents on the court, but her latest challenge wasn’t against a rival player—it was against some of the spiciest chicken wings on the planet. The former Grand Slam champion recently appeared on the popular YouTube series Hot Ones, where celebrities are put to the ultimate taste test: eating a lineup of increasingly spicy chicken wings while answering a series of in-depth questions from host Sean Evans.
For Sharapova, who is known for her fierce competitive spirit and sharp wit, the experience turned out to be one of her most intense off-court battles yet.
The Hot Ones challenge is notorious for pushing its guests to the limit. Each wing comes coated in sauces that get progressively hotter, climbing the Scoville scale to jaw-dropping levels of heat. The format has led to many memorable moments from A-list guests over the years—think tears, laughter, and sometimes even full-blown meltdowns. Sharapova’s appearance was no exception.
From the very first few bites, Sharapova handled herself like a pro, fielding questions about her career, life after tennis, and her entrepreneurial ventures, including her popular candy brand, Sugarpova. However, as the sauces got hotter, the usually composed tennis star started to feel the burn.
By the time she reached the latter stages of the challenge, Sharapova’s eyes were watering, her face was flushed, and she couldn’t hold back a few choice words as the heat overwhelmed her senses. “Oh my god, what is this?!” she exclaimed in between coughs and gasps for air. At one point, the intensity of the spice brought her to tears, forcing her to pause as she tried to recover.
Despite the pain, Sharapova maintained her humor throughout the episode. Between sips of water and bites of ice cream, she joked about the experience, calling it “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.” For someone who’s faced match point at Wimbledon and clawed her way through grueling Grand Slam finals, that’s saying something.
Fans loved seeing this candid, vulnerable side of Sharapova. On social media, viewers praised her for pushing through the challenge and showing her human side beyond the world of competitive sports. Many commented on her resilience, noting that she never tapped out, even when the heat reached its peak.
The episode has since gone viral, with clips of Sharapova tearing up and swearing her way through the hot sauce gauntlet spreading across platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. For longtime followers of her career, it was a rare and refreshing look at the tennis superstar in a completely different arena.
Maria Sharapova may be retired from professional tennis, but her competitive spirit—and her willingness to step outside her comfort zone—remains fully intact. Her appearance on Hot Ones just added another memorable moment to her already iconic legacy.