Advertisers line up for piece of Sharapova
BBC ^ | 5 July, 2004
Maria Sharapova might have lined up her first post-Wimbledon sponsorship deal just moments after clinching the title.
Desperate to speak to her mother in Florida, Sharapova grabbed her father's mobile phone and tried to call her, as the Duke of Kent waited patiently to come onto Centre Court and present her with the trophy.
Several advertising executives would have been rubbing their hands in glee.
Sharapova's life will never be the same again.
Already, marketing experts are predicting that the 17-year-old could become one of the richest sports stars on the planet, rivalling even Tiger Woods and David Beckham.
Woods, let us remember, earned £44m in the last year while the highest earning female athletes, all five of them tennis players, did not even make the top 50 in Forbes magazine's most recent sports rich list.
"You could make her £100m in the next 10 years," reckons PR guru Max Clifford.
This girl will be making as much money as Tiger Woods VERY soon!