Serious business starts for Sharapova
(abcnews.go.com)
Updated: 2005-06-17 10:58

Maria Sharapova has become a multi-million-dollar industry since her stunning Wimbledon triumph a year ago when she demolished Serena Williams in the final.

Maria Sharapova, pictured at the French Open, is set to resume her reign at Wimbledon but three former winners and two battling Belgians stand in the way. [AFP]

Lucrative contracts and modeling assignments have rolled in for the statuesque, 18-year-old Siberian. Marketing executives queue up for a slice of the action and Sharapova has even launched her own brand of perfume.

Next week, though, is all about tennis and Maria the businesswoman will be consigned firmly to the locker room when Sharapova walks out on Center Court Tuesday to begin the defense of her title against Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives.

Maria the fiercely competitive tennis player, with her nerves of steel and icy stare, will have only one objective — proving that last year was no flash in the pan.

It will be a tough assignment, even for a young woman who sacrificed a normal childhood at the age of nine, left her mother and arrived in Florida with just a handful of dollars.

Before a couple of days of "retail therapy" in London, Sharapova completed her Wimbledon warm-up by retaining her title in Edgbaston, stretching an unbeaten run on grass to 17.

However there were times when the Russian world number two, suffering from a cold and aching limbs, appeared distinctly ill at ease with her game.

Three times she was pushed to a deciding set as her game see-sawed between spectacular winners and elementary errors.

LIKELY OPPONENTS

Sharapova is unlikely to change her all-or-nothing approach on the slick Wimbledon grass, although tactically she will have to smarten up if she is to fend off the challenge of her main title rivals.

Two of those lurk in her half of the draw, with fourth seed Serena Williams or rejuvenated Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne, seeded seven, her likely semi-final opponents.

Twice former champion Williams, who missed the French Open with an ankle injury, is likely to make as big an impact with her latest outfit as her tennis, although the powerful American will be hard to stop if she survives the opening rounds.

their words once this year after Serena captured the Australian Open title in January.

Henin-Hardenne, who tuned 23 just before claiming her second French Open title earlier this month, outclassed Sharapova in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

With an energy-sapping viral infection and niggling injuries now behind her, Henin-Hardenne will relish the prospect of completing her haul of all four grand slam titles, having lost at Wimbledon to Venus Williams in the 2001 final.

"I'm not worried about playing her," Sharapova said when asked if Henin-Hardenne was the player she feared most. "I played Justine on her favorite surface (in Paris).

"On grass everything is faster, the points are shorter.

"I'll push myself harder and harder because this is my favorite tournament."

INJURY FREE

With so much focus on the bottom half of the draw, world number one and top seed Lindsay Davenport can expect to rumble through the top section relatively untroubled.

The 29-year-old American, winner here in 1999, is relaxed and injury free and will be a major threat after reaching the final of the Australian Open and the last eight at Roland Garros.

Sharapova aside, several Russians will provide a heavyweight challenge this year.

U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who had two matchpoints against Henin-Hardenne at the French Open, is armed with the most destructive serve in women's tennis.

Anastasia Myskina, the 2004 French Open champion, has endured a miserable year but a return to anywhere near her best form would take her through to the latter stages.

Of the other favorites, Belgium's fit-again Kim Clijsters, who missed last year's tournament with a wrist injury, will surely make an impact, although the progress of third seed Amelie Mauresmo is difficult to predict.

Blessed with sublime shot-making skills, the enigmatic, 25-year-old Frenchwoman has the perfect grasscourt game, although she has become a serial under-achiever at the grand slams and lost to a qualifier in her first match in Eastbourne this week.

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