Why the WTA Needs Maria Sharapova by Nadya Vlassoff
In the last two decades, sports marketing has become an extremely lucrative business. Star athletes from around the globe are given multi-million dollar contracts to endorse products as varied as clothing to energy drinks, fragrances to automobiles. The divide from athlete to celebrity is a partition that has been bridged so frequently in recent years that many star athletes are often seen walking red carpets and attending movie premiers. Due to this ever-increasing fashion, the sporting world has opened an entirely knew market in which to explore and promote their star athletes no longer as athletes but as brands themselves. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Reggie Bush, Peyton Manning, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Danica Patrick, Maria Sharapova, and Nastia Lukin have all become crossover stars whose mass appeal in the respective sports has allowed them to land guest staring roles in movies and television, market products and most of all, themselves.
Why then, some may ask, are these contracts so important? There is no question that athletes can help swell the popularity of a lesser-profile sport on a worldwide scale, as was the case with Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski who were both thrust into the entertainment spotlight after numerous figure skating wins at world and Olympic competitions. Both Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have been featured in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Editions although they are both tennis stars and have nothing to do with swimming as a sport. Apollo Anton Ono, American short track speed skating star, appeared on Season 4 of Dancing with the Stars, which he subsequently won with partner Julianne Hough proving that he was as variable on and off the ice. Nastia Liukin won the women’s gold all-around medal in Beijing in 2008 and was soon featured in ads ranging from cereal boxes to make-up promotions for CoverGirl and appearing as a model for Max Azria.
Many sports depend on their bankable stars to fill seats. Anna Kournikova, one of the most infamous tennis stars of her generation, was better known for her looks than her lobs. While Kournikova is a former number 1 ranked doubles player and a previous world number 8 in singles, Anna never won a grand slam singles title (although she had 2 doubles titles) and failed to win a single tier tournament the entire time she was on the WTA tour. Constantly referenced as one of the tennis world’s most overrated stars, Kournikova was still able to earn millions of dollars a year in endorsements, eventually taking the title of highest-paid female athlete away from Venus Williams after a whopping $11 million dollar year at her peak.
With so much financial success, it was only natural that the critics would begin to question the real motivation behind the WTA and their most bankable star. With the demise of Anna Kournikova’s on-court career came the emergence of new Russian tennis super star Maria Sharapova.
Sharapova first burst on the tennis scene with a shocking upset at Wimbledon in 2004 when she defeated Serena Williams in straight sets. With that slam title win at the tender age of 17, Maria Sharapova was soon thrust into the media spotlight, appearing in a bevy of magazines while also working the talk show circuit as the world became privy to the new face of the WTA. The sponsorship deals soon followed as Sharapova signed contracts with some of the biggest companies behind the tennis world, from Canon to Nike to Gatorade. In 2008, Forbes ranked Maria Sharapova as the highest-paid female athlete in the world after Maria took in over $26 million in endorsement deals alone. As recently as February 2009, Sharapova is still working with new sponsor Cole Haan, a subsidiary of Nike, in their new ad campaign.
Maria Sharapova has not played competitively since July of 2008.
Although the similarities between Russian beauties
Anna Kournikova and Maria Sharapova may be coincidental
in nature, their swimsuit radiance and sponsorship
appeal is where the comparison ends. Maria Sharapova
is a former world number 1 ranked player. And
while Maria is currently ranked 23rd on the
WTA rankings due to her lack of play in the
last 7 months, Sharapova has always been a threat
on the court, even from a distance. Sharapova
has three slam titles under her belt, with wins
at Wimbledon in 2004 and the U.S. Open in 2006,
where she defeated Justine Henin, and finally
at the Australian Open in 2008 where she beat
Ana Ivanovic. All three of the Sharapova wins
came in straight sets. Her performance in Melbourne
in 2008 was one of the most dominant displays
Sharapova has ever put on. In 4 grand slam final
appearances, Maria has won 3 times. Not bad
for the WTA’s “it” girl and their easily most
recognizable face.
What Maria Sharapova brings to the court is not only her bodily appeal but her physical play as well. When Sharapova is in peak condition, there are very few who pose a threat for the towering Russian. In 2008 Maria returned to the Australian Open with a much-improved service game, which allowed Sharapova to go on an 18-0 run at the beginning of the year. Although she has been injured for the latter half of the 2008 season and the beginning of 2009, Sharapova has done more than enough to silence the critics with her on-court success. The rest of the WTA field is not eagerly awaiting the return of Maria Sharapova but tennis fans worldwide are full of anticipation as the draw for the upcoming American hard-court events at Indian Wells and Miami are finalized.
However, there are many questions still left unanswered. If Maria Sharapova returns, will she be back to the court in peak physical condition? A shoulder injury has caused the most problems for Sharapova, especially as Maria has struggled to retain a fluid motion with her serve. And with a weaker-than-usual competitive field, will Sharapova step up to the baseline and claim what is rightfully hers? Will any other player on tour besides the Williams sisters even pose a threat? It is still early on for Maria Sharpova who turns 22 in April. Despite her absence from the tennis world, the sky is defiantly the limit for the experienced pro. Why does the WTA really need Maria Sharapova? Well, in simple terms, let’s just hope Maria actually returns to the tour before the rest of the world loses interest.
Subject: Before the rest of the world loses interest?
Oh please! "The rest of the world" is still interested in the WTA because the Williams sisters are playing. Maria only added to the WTA the popularity that the Williams sisters already had in place. If Maria does not return to top form or retires, "the rest of the world" will still be interested as long as the Williams sisters are playing. Now if the Williams sisters get injured and slip in the rankings, followed by retirement, then the WTA will really lose a lot of fans. I like Maria and even though she has received a ton of endorsements and way more popularity than players better than her (Williams sisters), "the rest of the world" pays attention to the WTA because of the Williams sisters. Maria and Anna have received so much attention outside of the tennis world because pop culture and the west view tall blonde white women as the most beautiful.
Albrecht Gaub – Madison, Wisconsin
March 05, 2009 - 09:09
Subject: Why the WTA needs Sharapova
Maria Sharapova's protracted injury is certainly a curse for women's tennis, and at this stage I actually no longer believe she will ever make a true comeback as much as I would wish for it. If she starts hitting hard again, her shoulder will not withstand the force. Her muscles are too strong for her joints and bones.
Still, at another level, I view the situation differently. It is not true that the "rest of the world" (meaning, apparently, everybody who is not a WTA insider) is losing interest in the sport. This is far more an American problem than one of the rest of the world. In many other countries, women's tennis continues to be a popular sport. Of course, this is especially true of those countries whose players fill the ranks of the top 20, which is to say, Russia and Serbia--and by extension, most of eastern Europe--but also France and China.
To be interested in a sport that is not inherently American (such as baseball, football, and NASCAR), the American public needs American athletes excelling in it. Now, in women's tennis, there are the Williams sisters--and nobody else until Bethanie Mattek and the like (and who knows how many tennis fans are clandestine racists somehow discounting the Williamses?). Nobody--unless Sharapova is counted, that is. She is a Russian citizen, but she has been living in the U.S. since she was six. She talks like an American, behaves like an American and has utterly embraced American values to the extent that in Russia she is, for all practical purposes, regarded as an American. Consequently, she is mostly shunned by Russian fans, who have instead espoused the less successful, but no less glamourous and, most importantly, avowedly patriotic Elena Dementieva as their idol. There, she is to grace the covers of glitzy magazines, not Sharapova. The same holds true for Jankovic and Ivanovic in Serbia. Unfortunately, Serbia is a country the United States was at war at not too long ago; a Serb, like a fiercely patriotic Russian on friendly terms with Putin like Dementieva (let alone the Muslim, Dinara Safina), would have a hard stand in the U.S. unless she (or he) broke with their home country and moved to the U.S.
Being a native of Germany, I know that problem; after the retirement of Steffi Graf (and Boris Becker and Michael Stich), Germany lost its somewhat over-hyped interest in tennis--men's AND women's alike. In Great Britain, they have at least Wimbledon.
So, it may happen that tennis, especially women's tennis, will become even more marginalized in the U.S. once the Williamses retire. A furious comeback of Sharapova might rekindle interest, but it is more important that young American players will emerge and rise to the top 10. If they are beauties of the sort of Sharapova, this will help. Still, beauty is no substitute for athletic excellence. Even Kournikova would never have enjoyed such popularity if she had not been endowed with a certain talent for tennis--and if she had not de facto emigrated to the U.S. On the other hand Billie Jean King could do without a model's body (although, one could argue, hers was a different time).
In the last two decades, sports marketing has become an extremely lucrative business. Star athletes from around the globe are given multi-million dollar contracts to endorse products as varied as clothing to energy drinks, fragrances to automobiles. The divide from athlete to celebrity is a partition that has been bridged so frequently in recent years that many star athletes are often seen walking red carpets and attending movie premiers. Due to this ever-increasing fashion, the sporting world has opened an entirely knew market in which to explore and promote their star athletes no longer as athletes but as brands themselves. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Reggie Bush, Peyton Manning, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Danica Patrick, Maria Sharapova, and Nastia Lukin have all become crossover stars whose mass appeal in the respective sports has allowed them to land guest staring roles in movies and television, market products and most of all, themselves.
Why then, some may ask, are these contracts so important? There is no question that athletes can help swell the popularity of a lesser-profile sport on a worldwide scale, as was the case with Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski who were both thrust into the entertainment spotlight after numerous figure skating wins at world and Olympic competitions. Both Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have been featured in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Editions although they are both tennis stars and have nothing to do with swimming as a sport. Apollo Anton Ono, American short track speed skating star, appeared on Season 4 of Dancing with the Stars, which he subsequently won with partner Julianne Hough proving that he was as variable on and off the ice. Nastia Liukin won the women’s gold all-around medal in Beijing in 2008 and was soon featured in ads ranging from cereal boxes to make-up promotions for CoverGirl and appearing as a model for Max Azria.
Sharapova first burst on the tennis scene with a shocking upset at Wimbledon in 2004 when she defeated Serena Williams in straight sets. With that slam title win at the tender age of 17, Maria Sharapova was soon thrust into the media spotlight, appearing in a bevy of magazines while also working the talk show circuit as the world became privy to the new face of the WTA. The sponsorship deals soon followed as Sharapova signed contracts with some of the biggest companies behind the tennis world, from Canon to Nike to Gatorade. In 2008, Forbes ranked Maria Sharapova as the highest-paid female athlete in the world after Maria took in over $26 million in endorsement deals alone. As recently as February 2009, Sharapova is still working with new sponsor Cole Haan, a subsidiary of Nike, in their new ad campaign.
What Maria Sharapova brings to the court is not only her bodily appeal but her physical play as well. When Sharapova is in peak condition, there are very few who pose a threat for the towering Russian. In 2008 Maria returned to the Australian Open with a much-improved service game, which allowed Sharapova to go on an 18-0 run at the beginning of the year. Although she has been injured for the latter half of the 2008 season and the beginning of 2009, Sharapova has done more than enough to silence the critics with her on-court success. The rest of the WTA field is not eagerly awaiting the return of Maria Sharapova but tennis fans worldwide are full of anticipation as the draw for the upcoming American hard-court events at Indian Wells and Miami are finalized.