Maria Sharapova has gone from winning Wimbledon 10 years ago as a shy teen... to a business tycoon worth $150m
- Maria Sharapova first won Wimbledon in 2004 as a 17-year-old
- Since then he net work has been estimated at $150m (£88m)
- Sharapova has win five Grand Slams including the 2014 French Open
- Business savvy Rusian has launched her own confectionery brand
Maria
Sharapova had hardly stepped off court after her stunning triumph at
Wimbledon 10 years ago when the phone of her long-time agent and
business mentor Max Eisenbud started ringing off the hook.
A
star was born, one with a golden combination. Talented, articulate,
driven and extremely photogenic — small wonder that the queue of
potential sponsors equalled the line of those seeking her autograph.
Eisenbud
recalls how they took a hard-headed view: ‘After she won Wimbledon, her
life changed. We were offered everything going but we didn’t want Maria
to end up like Anna Kournikova.’
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It girl: Maria Sharapova has become a business marvel worth an estimated $150million
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Golden girl: Maria Sharapova won the 2004 Wimbledon Championships as a 17-year-old
Ten years
on, that appears to have been a wise course of action. Sharapova, while
curiously not having added to her Wimbledon tally, is still winning
Grand Slam titles but has also acquired riches beyond most athletes’
dreams. Kournikova, meanwhile, is largely forgotten.
Only
two weeks ago, Sharapova was posing with her second French Open title
in front of the Eiffel Tower. She couples this with topping the Forbes
list of highest earning female athletes.
The
27-year-old Russian’s net worth is estimated at $150million (£88m) and
her annual earnings at around $27m (£15.9m). Her dual success on and off
the court is a phenomenon. As Sharapova admits, she had little idea
what that 2004 triumph at the All England Club would bring.
‘At
17 you’re not too business- savvy,’ she tells me in her calm,
matter-of-fact way. ‘My parents helped me and their support and
understanding kept me realistic.
‘I
lived in a very real world. I had just won Wimbledon but you go back to
Florida and the barista is still making the coffee. One of the reasons I
have been able to keep that success and carry on with all the things I
do is that I love going on the court and love competing.
‘But
I also have opportunities to do things that make me happy. If you don’t
have that passion you are never going to be really successful. Things
are always going to be a drag and pull you in so many directions when
you are a 17-year-old who has won Wimbledon.’
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Largely forgotten: Maria Sharapova's manager didn't want her going the same way as Anna Kournikova
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French fancy: Maria Sharapova has won five Grand Slams including the 2014 French Open (above)
Eisenbud played tennis on the American college circuit and graduated to become the manager of IMG’s junior talent programme.
‘I
saw her play for the first time at Bradenton (Nick Bollettieri’s
academy), aged nine,’ he says. ‘It was like when you look at that video
of the young Tiger Woods. She practised non-stop for an hour and a half
and didn’t even drink any water.’
He
remains her manager and has helped her launch Sugarpova, her own sweets
(Sharapova responds to questions about whether she should be promoting
sugar products with the same disdain that meets inquiries about
whether the yelp she lets out when hitting the ball is an attractive
trait).
‘For the last four to five years she has wanted to own something herself,’ says Eisenbud of the burgeoning Sugarpova project.
‘We
talked to a guy called Jeff Rubin who owns a successful candy business.
He kind of blurted out ‘Sugarpova’ over dinner one night.
‘Maria
is great at compartmentalising the tennis stuff and all the stuff off
the court. She is going to be very successful in business when she is
done playing. When she has 300 days per year to devote to it, it will be
good, and she is putting all the foundations in.’
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Eye of the tiger: While the Russian enjoys business opportunities, nothing rivals competing on the court
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Sweet tooth: Business savvy Maria Sharapova has recntly branched out with her own line of confectionery
Asked when that day might come, he replies: ‘About four or five years, it could be less.’
Sharapova
has suffered injuries and gone through dips in form. Yet her love of
competing sees her address her on-court career with an ability to shut
out distractions.
Eisenbud
makes an interesting observation about how she maintains such focus:
‘Most of her friends are not in tennis. Some players meet someone for
the first time and the next thing you know they are in their player box.
But in there you want people who have been working with you in the
trenches. She is firm about that.’
It was notable in Paris that Sharapova’s entourage amounted to three, no more than when she won Wimbledon 10 years ago.
Her
first time at SW19 was in 2002, when she lost the Wimbledon junior
final: ‘I remember the junior final was on the Sunday, after the men had
finished. I was one of the last people leaving and it was quite late
and nearly dark, a bit eerie.
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Trappings of fame: Maria Sharapova is collected for the WTA party by F1 driver Mark Webber in a Porsche
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Love match: Maria Sharapova is going out with fellow tennis professional Grigor Dimitrov
‘I was
driving away and thinking how special it is. I was upset because I’d
lost and I was thinking about the match, but I looked back and thought,
“How beautiful is this”, and that I couldn’t wait to be back and I’d
really like to win it.
‘In
2004 it was a bit of a mess because our housing situation didn’t work
out,’ she recalls. ‘We ended up staying with a family with three young
kids. There were a lot of 6am wake-up calls from the kids. I still
wonder how I coped and the morning after the final just holding my
replica trophy with them in their garden like it was no big deal.
‘The
final was surreal, something that as a young player you think of as the
Mecca of tennis. I had horse blinders on, I didn’t think about
anything. That’s why I was fearless. I took it as if I was playing on
court No 20, although I was on Centre Court in front of thousands of
people playing for the championship.
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No fear: Maria Sharapova remembers playing without worry when she won Wimbledon in 2004
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Early shower: Maria Sharapova crashed out in the second round of the Championships last year
‘I’d
got to the quarter-finals a couple of weeks before in Paris and that
was a thrill for me. And with every match at Wimbledon I felt I was
playing better. I remember the match against (Daniela) Hantuchova was
one of my best. I got that form and didn’t let it drop.
‘Playing Serena in the final, it had been an accomplishment getting there, and I just went with it.’
It
is a surprise to her that she has not won again at the All England
Club, but twice in Paris on clay to add to US and Australian Open
titles, which for years her movement looked so unsuited for. It seems
hard to believe that it was all 10 summers ago.
‘If
somebody had asked me then if I would win all four Slams and be No 1, I
don’t think I would believe it, because you almost believe at 17 that
everything is such big luck,’ she says. ‘But here I am.’
