Sharapova Tries to Go Where No Other Tennis Celebrity has Gone Before

By Matthew Cronin

Anna Kournikova couldn’t do it.

Gabriela Sabatini had a sniff of it.

Serena Williams did it, but never consistently.

Now it’s up to Maria Sharapova to prove that a women’s tennis player can be an international sex symbol and dominate her sport.

The jury is so far out on the question that security may end up locking them out for the night before they can return for a verdict. Even the perpetrator isn’t ready to render a final judgment.

“I don’t think I’m ready for it now,” Sharapova told Inside Tennis. “I think at some point I may be able to dominate, but, honestly, I don’t think I’m physically there yet, and I don’t want to go out there and say I am when I’m really not. But it is my goal to achieve that and stay there.”

Veteran Mary Pierce has had a few of her own bouts with commercial life and celebrity. She was engaged to former baseball All-Star Roberto Alomar, and the celebrity of their relationship was at times distracting. She says that Sharapova is in for a big-time struggle to find the proper balance between fame and forehand.

“Anna had a lot going on with her career that took a lot of time, energy and pressure,” Pierce told IT. “Maybe other interests start happening. You have to be superhuman. To dominate you have to be at your best, and that takes all your time.”

Sharapova has no major man problems now, but she does have an off-court portfolio that is weighing heavily on her. She’s banking a cool $22.5 million per year and 90 percent of those earnings are off-court. That means a ton of photo shoots, sponsor appearances and store visits. She’s managed pretty well so far, but it isn’t getting any easier.

“I think she’s dealt very well with the pressure,” said her Russian compatriot, Elena Dementieva. “It’s never easy to have all those things off court, but when she gets on court, she seems to love the fight.”

Two-time Grand Slam titlist Pierce knows that playing at one’s highest level demands almost all your attention. That’s what she did in ‘05 when she reached two Grand Slam finals at 30.

“I don’t have a lot of time for anything else,” Pierce said. “Of course you have moments when you rest, on vacation, but if you are filling that with other things, it’s tough. If you can find your priorities and balance them well, okay. But for me, my tennis has to be the top priority. I don’t see it any other way. You need to give it first place.”

No one who knows Sharapova sees that she has any other intentions than to be No. 1 again. But the fact is there are a lot of things coming in second place behind priority numero uno. There are marketing teams lining up at the turnstiles to get a part of her day. Major sponsors, such as Motorola, Canon and Nike want some bang for their buck, and that doesn’t mean just an annual photo shoot. She was named Yahoo’s Most Searched Athlete of 2005, beating out Kournikova, Danica Patrick, David Beckham, Kobe Bryant and Serena, among others.

So even if Sharapova is thinking tennis strategies while the cameras are clicking away in a photo shoot for Italian Vogue, she’s not working on her volley. But the 18-year-old says she knows when enough is enough.

“You must have that feeling inside,” she said. “You must realize what your priority is, how much time you can spend on one certain thing. I haven’t done more than I did in 2004, but in ways it’s different. I enjoy doing different things. I don’t like doing appearances day after day, because after a few days, I get bored and want to go back on court. But I do love giving back to my fans, trying new thinks, working with sponsors. I don’t mind going home and designing a purse. I love fashion and I’m in school. I am juggling a lot of things, but I love doing them. As long as I love them, I will keep doing them, and when I don’t love them anymore, then I will stop.”

In order for Sharapova to become a dominant player in the mold of Serena, she’ll have to develop a number of elements to her game that are lacking, such as more variety and improved footwork. She’ll never be as fast as Williams—who won seven Grand Slam titles because other players simply couldn’t pass her when she was zoning—but Sharapova could be just as powerful, and if she can improve her net game and up a her defense a little, she’ll be a threat to win every tournament she plays.

But there’s major difference between Serena and Sharapova: Serena didn’t become a sex symbol until after she won a series of Slam titles and came to forefront of the public’s attention. Maria became the cat’s meow as soon as she shrieked her way to the Wimbledon title in ‘04. “It’s very flattering,” Sharapova said. “I don’t necessarily think about it when I step on court because the only thing I’m thinking about is my tennis. I hope that people come out and watch me for my tennis. But I can’t control the reason why they come out. I’m a tennis player. With being a popular player come a lot of other things.”

Out of Place in Beverly Hill
It’s Sharapova’s inner make-up, not the brand and color of the lipstick she chooses, that will determine how history finally looks at her. Outwardly, she appears to just another thin, tall, attractive blonde with a salacious smile who won’t be bloodying her knees a la Justine Henin-Hardenne. But inwardly, she still views herself as the somewhat gawky, shy preteen from Siberia who didn’t have more than a couple of rubles to her name just a decade ago.

On a couple of occasions during the ‘05 WTA Championships in L.A., Sharapova found herself strolling up toney Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. One would think that Sharapova and her massive portfolio would be right at home clicking up Rodeo in her black high heels, but she’s not. She’s from a troubled and depressed part of Russia and rode a bus from Miami to the Bollettieri Academy at the age of eight with her father Yuri, who had only a few hundred dollars in his pocket. She’s felt poverty, and although she can dress to the nine’s, it’s zeroes she saw on the sidewalk when she went shopping.

“I was looking at this people and I thought, ‘I’m totally out of place here,’ Sharapova said. “That’s not where I come from. I know I’m popular, and some people think I’m the ‘It Girl’, but I’m not. I walk around there and shop there, but I don’t feel like this is me. That’s not where I come from.”

That doesn’t mean that Sharapova doesn’t like doing sponsor appearances and mugging for the cameras; on occasion, she does. But she says that she’s more of a down-home girl who likes to hang out at her new house and relax. She’s not Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, who can’t stop whistling for the tabloids to arrive. She may not be portrayed as a wholesome woman, but that’s how she comes off in person. Britney and Paris aren’t getting an “A” in Chemistry, or studying economics like Sharapova is, nor are they willing forgo their image in order to keep it real. Can you imagine Sharapova ever saying to a lawman, “Thanks officer; we just love the police,” like Hilton did while winking at the cameras last November? Nor would Spears ever say the following: “I’m not the kind of girl who is going to dress to make all my fans happy. I do whatever I feel comfortable doing, and I’m not forcing everyone to like what I do.”

Sharapova says she’s not cut out for the all-glitter, no-substance career. In fact, after she lost to Amelie Mauresmo in the WTA Championships semis, she showed up at a glitzy party at Spago’s in Beverly Hills wearing nothing more than a casual sweater and a pair of jeans, while many of her fellow players, including the camera loving Serena, spent hours getting made up and sported high-end dresses.

Maria was angry and disappointed that she was again injured for what seemed thehundredth time in ‘05 and couldn’t defend a Championships title that she believed would have been hers had her right pectoral muscle injury not flared up again. So when the cameras began clicking, all she did was glare. There would be no billion-dollar grin that night, and she left quickly without more than a few nibbles on Wolfgang Puck’s delicacies.

“I’m absolutely exhausted,” she said. “That’s normal. We complain about the 10 and half-month season all the time, so to say you are exhausted is normal. It’s been a pretty injured Maria this year. It’s been really frustrating. But I’ve been telling myself that no one s going to be injury free for their whole career. I’ve been working hard, and I took all the negative things out of myself. I still believe in myself.”

A Sophomore Swoon
Spectacular sophomore years are hard to come by. A number of great players won their first Slam and then failed to follow it up with another one the next year, Serena included.

That’s what happened to Sharapova in ‘05. Sure, she deserves tremendous credit for becoming the first Russian to reach No. 1 last summer, but at many of the big tournaments she faltered. She came up just short at the Slams, falling in hard-fought semis to eventual champions Serena in Australia (where she let go of two match points) Venus at Wimbledon and Kim Clijsters at the U.S. Open. At Roland Garros, eventual champ Henin-Hardenne schooled her in the quarters.

“There were some matches this year where I lost a little concentration and focus and played some stupid points,” said Sharapova, who won three titles in ‘05 and ended the year ranked No. 4. “But it’s about being in those situations and learning from them, and although I’ve played a lot of matches already in my life, I’m still pretty young and have a lot to learn. But I am learning, and I think you can see that.

While the Russian was unable to grab the big prizes, she did go 53-12 during the season. Had it not been for the right pectoral muscle injury that morphed into a shoulder injury and sidelined her on and off since July, she might have ended the year No. 1. But it wasn’t to be. Despite visiting doctor after doctor, increasing her off court training and adding a good 10 pounds of muscle, she didn’t find a cure for what ailed her until December, when it was discovered that she had a dislocated rib and that the back of her shoulder is too tight and needs daily doses of physical therapy.

“There are times when I do get frustrated, but I don’t let the frustrations take over me,” she said. “I try to be positive. There have been a lot of ups and downs this year, especially with the injuries, where it’s been one thing after another. But I’ve always continued to be tough, because all of my life I’ve fought for everything that I’ve had.”

While the willowy blonde has made major headway off court, she still has a ways to go on court, and she admits it. But there is reason to be hopeful in the short-term, because although her injury affected her two biggest weapons —- her serve and her forehand — she still managed to stay super competitive at every major tournament. Her backhand is very accurate, she is developing a dependable swing volley and she still has the best return in the business.

“There are a lot of little things that can improve in my game, but I still use whatever I have to try to win matches,” she said. “I’ve been much more consistent, which has nothing to do with backhand and forehands. It’s more of an instinct that I’m able to get through get through tough situations because I feel I’ve been there. I get experience from that, as well as confidence. The opportunities I’ve had, some I took and others I didn’t.”

Even though many of her fans would like to see her become Steffi Graf in ‘06, Sharapova knows it isn’t going to happen. Time and time again she’ll remind her audience of her age and how she is still maturing mentally and physically. Being the queen of the AELTC in ‘04 at the age of 17 has been a blessing and a cruse.

“Because I came out early and won Wimbledon at a young age, and I grew a few centimeters this year—it’s not been easy,” the 6-foot-2 inch Russian said. “When you are playing so much, to feel 100 percent at every tournament and perform well under tough conditions, it’s hard. I don’t want to win something, and then everybody says it’s so great. I still feel that if I play well and lose the match that’s fine, but that it might upset my fans that want me to win so much. I still feel I need to improve things, and we only have a month off to train, so if you don’t work on things in matches, it’s impossible to improve.”

Split With Lansdorp
For most of her life, Sharapova has been guided by strong, intense men: her passionate father Yuri, who would take a bullet for his daughter in a millisecond; her first coach, the back-slapping mega-motivator Nick Bollettieri; and her longtime coach, the sometimes gruff Robert Lansdorp, with whom she parted ways after the U.S. Open. They’ve all taught Maria not to accept losing, to scratch and claw until the last ball. All their voices ring in her head and amplify her inner toughness. It’s hardly surprising that she’s become somewhat of a perfectionist, which is why she often kicks herself when she plays poorly. And when she can’t perform up to snuff because her chest hurt too much, she’d often cry hard.

“At times I do get frustrated, but that makes it worse, and it just burns,” she said. “I try to be positive. There have been a lot of ups and down, especially with the injuries, where it’s been one thing after another. There’s no consistency. I’m feeling great and then all of a sudden I can’t hold a racket after I hurt my thumb and I just sitting there thinking, ‘Why?’”

Sharapova brightens when told that’s she’s a better decision maker now, but she won’t prop herself up in a Serena-like fashion, modestly noting, “I don’t like to brag, and I’m not usually an optimistic person. I like to surprise myself but yeah, I know my game is better.”

She says she knows herself better too and is largely in control of her own life. She’s pretty self-assured one-on-one or in small groups, but she doesn’t take kindly to probing questions or speculative theories about her off-court life from strangers, and she maintains a tight circle around herself while traveling.

These days, it’s Yuri, her agent, IMG’s Max Eisenbud, and her traveling coach, former SoCal touring pro Michael Joyce. With the exception of fellow Russian teen Maria Kirilinko, she has few friends on tour, but she does have a group of non-tennis friends she developed in Florida.

Up until the U.S. Open, that group contained the legendary coach Lansdorp, who once coached Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Anastasia Myskina and Lindsay Davenport. But Sharapova says she outgrew Lansdorp, and sources say she was tired of being treated like a 12-year-old.

Lansdorp blames her father Yuri for the split, saying he was riding her too much at the U.S. Open during her tight three-set victory over Nadia Petrova. Lansdorp called him on the carpet for it in The New York Times before her gut-wrenching loss to Clijsters, which Yuri didn’t like. But Maria says her dad was only imploring her to charge the net and deploy her swing volley, because he believes she isn’t taking advantage of her wingspan at the net and gets involved in too many long, defensive points.

Yuri and Joyce are attempting to get Maria to add more variety to her game, while Lansdorp would rather see her stick to her guns form the backcourt. Regardless of who is correct, the situation came to head in New York, and Lansdorp lost. He consequently ripped Yuri for being overbearing and selfish, caring only for himself and his daughter. He called both of them cheap for not buying him a new luxury car. Sharapova’s camp says he was always paid for her lessons and that, had he waited, he may have received his desired present. But because the Sharapovas came from working-class roots and had just come into money, they weren’t yet buying major presents even for themselves.

Nonetheless, Sharapova was hurt by Lansdorp’s allegations. Because she does not want to get involved in a public feud, she thanked him for giving her the foundation for her rock-solid ground attack and moved on. She knew that she could have fired back, saying that Lansdorp also had flamed out with Davenport and Myskina because he couldn’t deal with them once they became women, but she chose to be “classy”.

But if that situation is now tied up somewhat neatly, others are in knots. While Yuri can be credited with avoiding the limelight—unlike some other tennis parents, he never does interviews of more than a minute or two, and even those are rare—he has gotten his daughter into hot water by screaming at some other Russian players, especially Fed Cup leader Myskina, which has made it difficult for his daughter to be accepted into the Russian fold.

In October, Sharapova returned to Russia for the first time in a decade to play Moscow, and it was a media and government-official circus. Everyone wanted a part of “Masha” and had an opinion of her Russian-ness. The press kept hounding her to speak about her national loyalties and whether she would play Fed Cup for Russia (and not for the U.S., like some writers, including this one, suggested she might consider). She promised she would play for Russia but wouldn’t commit to a date. “I definitely feel Russian inside. Even when I’m in America I feel Russian,” she said. “But coming here for the first time in years, it made me feel even more so.”

Sharapova has a strong desire to play in the ‘08 Olympics, but if she doesn’t make herself available for Fed Cup in ‘06 or ‘07, by ITF rules, she cannot be considered. She doesn’t want to overplay next year and moreover, she’s still very uncomfortable with a few members of the team, including Myskina, who still cannot stand Yuri; as well as Svetlana Kuznetsova, one of Myskina’s friends, and EDementieva, who led the team to the title in September and still contends that Sharapova will never play for the team—even though she says that if Maria decides to do so, she’ll welcome her.

There’s a crucial difference between Sharapova and the other top Russians: They learned their trade in Russia or in another part of Europe, while she, like Kournikova, learned her trade in the U.S. The top Russian women always emphasize that difference, rather than looking at what might bring them together. As one of Sharapova’s friends says, “Maria knows when she’s not wanted.”

Sharapova knows she’s not completely welcome with that group, so she’s hoping that, at some point, Russian captain Shamil Tarpichev will chose a team that includes her, Kirilenko and Vera Zvonareva, another Russian player with whom she has no problems, and maybe another Russian teen who doesn’t have strong ties to the Russian tennis establishment, like Vera Douchevina.

For all her starry-eyed comments about how much she loves her homeland, Sharapova is not mature or bold enough yet to face down the older Myskina or Dementieva in the locker room or demand that her dad apologize to them.

She may be coming into her own as a woman and calling most of her own shots, but she says she’s not confrontational person off court. “I don’t like those situations,” she said. “I talk to people who want to talk to me.”

The List of Priorities
There are loads of fans who would go to great lengths to hear even a whisper from Sharapova. When she’s in the right frame of mind, she’ll socialize. But when she has suffered a big loss, like any other great champion, she’s ready to take the first car out of the arena.

“When we first met [my agent], I said that my No. 1 priority was tennis,” she recalled. “Everything else came after tennis. We thought about the way we wanted to be marketed, but then I won Wimbledon and everything went so fast. It was a surprise and I guess everyone got excited.”

In order to reach Serena status as a player, Maria will have to spend a tremendous amount time toning her body and honing her technique. If her she can’t get rid of her shoulder injury, she’ll be hard-pressed to climb to the top again, because without her bullet serve and forehand, she doesn’t have another dependable weapon.

Pierce sees room for concern. “Physically, Maria is young and already has a decent injury,” she said. “She hits a fantastic, heavy, hard ball, but her technique is not the greatest and that can cause injuries.”

But Sharapova thinks she’s becoming a better all around player and will develop enough other areas to compensate for physical shortcomings if they arrive. She says she’s hasn’t hit the wall yet, and she’s willing to keeping scrapping until she gets it right.

“If you think that way than mentally, you are going to hit the wall, and nothing good is going to come my way. I’m not going to just wave a magic wand and it’s going to come right away. It takes time, and I know that if I keep working. I know it’s going to improve.”

Sharapova admits that tennis has become more of a career than when she started, but she adds that she still has an undying passion for the sport. She still loves the day in, day out grind and that keeps her mentally fresh.

“I wake up in the morning, and I know I’m going to go out there to do something that I love and keep getting better at,” she said. “I don’t wake up and try to turn my alarm off. Maybe others do, but there are days when I’m tired and don’t want to wake up. But when I’m on court, I feel this is what I’m meant to be doing. When I hit a ball after not playing for two weeks, I feel this is where I really belong. It’s what I’ve done for so long and this is where I feel my best.”

It is said that the generic “It Girl” “is who you want her to be, but not who you think she is.” Sharapova wants to be herself, but she does not end up being Sabatini—an amazingly talented player who won one Slam and then could never put the pieces back together and capture another. Sharapova already has had a significantly better career than Kournikova, but she would prefer to be compared with Serena, a surefire Hall-of-Famer who, at times, has managed to play to and beyond her potential and also made an indelible mark on Madison Avenue. If Sharapova can strike a similar balance, she could become the most famous accomplished player ever.

“I’ve always wanted to be a top player,” Sharapova said. “That’s been my dream. But what comes with it can be celebrity, and even if it has nothing to do with tennis, it’s part of what I do and I have to accept it. If I don’t want to be a tennis player, I wouldn’t have to accept these things and be that level of celebrity. It’s something that comes with sport.”