Success would be sweet for ‘Sugarpova’ Brand Maria would be boosted by slam title

July 02, 2011

Prepare to have a cannon filled with blond hair, glitter and $100 bills fired into your face.

If Maria Sharapova beats Petra Kvitova today -a young Czech making her first appearance in a grand slam final -and wins the Rosewater Dish for a second time, this match could resonate far beyond the lawn and the tennis hard-core.

It could end up being the greatest ambush marketing event in the history of the All England Club: the reinforcing of Brand Maria, just three years after shoulder surgery threatened to end her career.

Sharapova has long been No. 1 in the tennis rich list, with Forbes consistently judging her to be the world’s highest-earning sportswoman, and now she is starting to mobilize in the tennis rankings again. Ranked sixth at the start of the tournament, she's guaranteed to be back in the top five on Monday for the first time in three years. If she wins, she’ll be No. 3.

And, on what is supposed to be the ‘cleanest’ stadium in tennis, almost devoid of commercial branding, Sharapova could strengthen her commercial image and her sponsors’.

What better way to publicize “Sugarpova” - the range of sweets that she will be selling from the autumn -than to win her first grand slam trophy in more than three years? Her other sponsors would love for her to step out of the billboards and win another major.

No amount of airbrushing or digital re-editing is going to disguise the fact that Sharapova, though she’s yet to drop a set here, has not always played with great poise and authority. In her semifinal against Sabine Lisicki, a German wild card, she served 13 double faults.

But Sharapova is not seeking perfection today; just another Wimbledon title and the confirmation that she is back.

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