Word: sharapova
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...Maria Sharapova fibs. "I'm just a normal girl," she giggles. Sharapova, 18, the blond, leggy, Russia-born, Florida-raised tennis pinup is the No. 1--ranked player in the world heading into next week's U.S. Open. Sure, like a normal girl, Sharapova is a bit of a mall rat. But a normal girl doesn't morph into the highest-paid female athlete on the planet in one year. She doesn't have a corporate sponsor like Motorola throw her 18th-birthday party at a swank Manhattan nightclub, pack it with 500 people and hire Maroon 5 to rock...
...pouring $120 million into a planned sports facility in the Indian tech hub of Hyderabad, where international coaches will groom future champions in all sports. It will be a replica of IMG Academies, a coaching center in Bradenton, Fla., that has produced the likes of tennis champ Maria Sharapova. India "is a land of entrepreneurs," says Krieger, "and sports is the greatest entrepreneurial system, as it teaches you to invest in yourself." --By Smita Madhur...
...terrible burden is finally lifted, along with a large round trophy. MARIA SHARAPOVA, a blond, Russian-born tennis prodigy with a modeling contract, has had to expend much valuable energy denying that she's the new Anna Kournikova, an adjectivally similar countrywoman who won hearts but no titles. "Anna isn't in the picture anymore," Sharapova recently announced. "It's Maria time now." True and true. With Kournikova absent and fighting retirement, the less flamboyant, more focused Sharapova, 17, trounced Serena Williams, 6-1, 6-4, Saturday to become Wimbledon's third youngest women's champion ever and the first...
...play, such as Dementieva, 21, and Anastasia Myskina, 22, who have both won tour titles this year; 16-year-old Anna Tchakvetadze, who made the girls' singles final at Wimbledon; Lina Krasnoroutskaya, 19, who beat Kim Clijsters in August at the Rogers AT&T Cup in Toronto; and Maria Sharapova, 16, who hasn't won yet but may become the best of the bunch. Impoverished Russian kids copy these heroes the way teenagers elsewhere emulate David Beckham or Shaquille O'Neill, as TV and newspaper coverage bring the triumphant, affluent and socially important new stars into virtually every Russian home...
...says IMG sports agent Max Eisenbud. "There is a reason they're getting involved with this kid. If he dominates the sport at 17, it's not a big investment." Two years ago Nike signed tennis prodigy Brendan Evans, now 17, for $250,000, and Russian tennis ace Maria Sharapova, 16, pocketed $750,000 from Prince. The lucrative deals are a risk: athletic-company endorsements mean the kids lose amateur status and can't compete in college athletics, which can push them prematurely into the pro arena. The parents of tennis wunderkind Donald Young Jr., 13--the No. 1 player...