When Maria Sharapova won her first grand slam title in 2004,at age 17,she made the cover of Sports Illustrated. The issue showed Sharapova at the moment she became a household name,proudly beaming on court at Wimbledon in a body-skimming white tank dress from Nike. Star Power, the headline read. And do you think I knew what Sports Illustrated was? Sharapova said recently. I knew what Vogue was,but not Sports Illustrated. When you are young,you are a little naïve. Was Maria Sharapova really all that naïve? One does not become the highest paid female athlete in the world without recognising that the greatest potential for earnings comes not from winning championships,but from endorsement deals. Sharapova,now 24 years old and the seventh ranked womens singles player,made $24.5 million from June 2009 to June 2010,according to Forbes,about $4 million more than her nearest competitor,Serena Williams. Last year,she renewed her Nike contract in an eight-year deal estimated to be worth $70 million,the most ever for a female athlete,including royalties from clothes she designs for Nike. She also designs shoes and handbags for Cole Haan and endorses luxury brands like Tiffany and Tag Heuer,and the electronics company Sony Ericsson. Expanding her reach into the unexpected,she is about to announce a new partnership with Jeff Rubin,the man who helped create Dylans Candy Bar in 2001 and a chain of candy shops inside F. A. O. Schwarz stores to develop her own brand of candy and sweets. The name of her brand? Sugarpova. She is laying the groundwork for what her life will be like after tennis. But it is her competitiveness off the court that has made for a more riveting match in recent years,as Sharapova fights for turf among those athletes who aspire to become brandspushing both Nike and Cole Haan to produce more of her designs,creating the candy business and now expanding her online presence with a Facebook page with 4.3 million fans. In her own words,she now has money that will feed my great-grandchildren. Her victory at Wimbledon came too early in the career of an athlete who was interested in blue-chip endorsementsone who,like the Williams sisters before her,was most interested in fashion. When I was younger, she said,Nike would put me in the same clothes as maybe 10 other girls in the tour. If everyone is wearing black,I want to be wearing red. As part of her new deal with Nike,the company last year began producing and selling a line based on her on-court attire. At the risk of a stupid question,it seems relevant to ask her at 24,if she had the chance to win Wimbledon again,or have a brand on the scale of Air Jordan,which would she choose? Just before the start of the French Open,she said The answer is I would win Wimbledon over anything. Wimbledon is not something you can buy. A brand is something you can build.ERIC WILSON
