Maria Sharapova will be playing Nike Knockout event on August 25th in New York City.  According to the organizers, it will be a star-studded event with the participation of the biggest names in tennis with the hottest celebrities in entertainment for head to head doubles. The event will feature Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, Victoria Azarenka, John McEnroe, Madison Keys and more. There will also be live-streaming.

Charlie Ebersol is old news. So who is Maria Sharapova’s new boyfriend? Maria has been spotted recently with her rumored boyfriend Sasha Vujacic–a Slovenian basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers. The Los Angeles Lakers drafted him in 2004, and in 2008 he signed another three year deal worth fifteen million dollars. You can follow Vujacic’s on Twitter. Here are some photos of the lovely couple.

More photos after the cut… Read more »

photo: wtatour.ru

Just do it… Make millions! World’s highest-paid female athlete is going to get even richer. Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova has extended her sponsorship deal with Nike in an eight-year $70 million agreement. The contract goes into effect this month and includes a line of dresses designed by Maria. She currently makes close to $22 million a year in prize money and from endorsing companies (Tiffany & Co, Sony Ericsson and Canon). She consistently ranks as the highest paid-female athlete of the world and the highest paid athlete in Russia for the last several years. Read more »

Maria Sharapova asks for some good luck from monks in Thailand. Her luck will be tested soon at the Australian Open.

photos: mariasharapova.com

Melanie Oudin
Saturday, September 5, 2009 — US Open

Q. Five weeks ago you were playing against a kid from Boston College. Now you just beat a former US Open winner on center court. How do you make the transition?
MELANIE OUDIN: It’s not that hard for me ’cause I love playing tennis no matter who I’m playing. Getting to play Maria today was an unbelievable experience for me. She’s such a great competitor, a great player. I just had a blast playing there today. Read more »

As it was expected, Oudinmania has swept the American press. 17-year-old Melanie Oudin pulled off her second upset of the US Open defeating Maria Sharapova 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Let’s not get carried away, please!!! As Reuters reported, “Maria Sharapova gift-wrapped the match for Oudin by serving up a mind-boggling 21 double faults and committing 63 unforced errors amid perfect conditions on Arthur Ashe Stadium.” If Sharapova were Serena Williams, she would have said Oudin made some “lucky shots and it was up to her to win it or lose it.” But Maria has always been gracious in her interviews. Read Maria Sharapova’s post-match interview after the cut:  Read more »

Sovsport.ru carries an exclusive interview with Maria Sharapova’s coach Michael Joyce. This is the first time he has ever given an interview to a Russian magazine. In an interview he discusses Maria’s well-documented troubles with her shoulder injury, about their partnership and about Yuri Sharapov’s absence from the stands. Also, in response to the journalist’s question if she is more Russian or American by her mentality, Joyce answered:

“Maria is 100 percent Russian. Her mother always cooks Russian food. When her grandmother and grandfather visit them, and the family gathers around the table, it becomes so obvious how much they love Russia. Once we were in Phoenix, and somebody told us there is a Russian store in the city. We had to go to great lengths to find it. Maria bought almost whatever was available in the store. I haven’t seen her that happy for quite some time.”

[TIB: I wonder if he would have given the same answer to the American media. I am just saying:-)]

(Photo: AP)

You can tell the media and the tennis fans are all warming up for the US Open. There is so much happening on the count-down days.

Maria Sharapova has unveiled her new fashion collection by Cole Haan. The three-time Grand Slam singles champion has debuted her Maria Sharapova by Cole Haan collection of handbags and footwear at the Rockefeller center in New York on August 28th.

More photos after the cut. Read more »

Tennis player Maria Sharapova with an annual income of $22 million tops the list of the 50 powerful Russian celebrities. She is followed by football forward Andrei Arshavin with over $7 million. There are 19 newcomers on the list among whom are Dinara Safina (16th, $4.5 million), and Vera Zvonareva (42nd, $2,4 million). Elena Dementieva was the 19th ($1.9 million) and Svetlana Kuznetsova was 33rd ($3 million). The rankings were estimated based on earnings, media exposure and search terms on Yandex Russian search engine.

Interestingly Maria was also the only Russian ranked at 76th on the Forbes’ 100 Celebrities list 2009. It should be noted that Maria was sidelines for nine months by the shoulder injury.  Despite her absence from the courts, her web rank was 15. Not bad ha?

Read more about Maria’s celebrity power here, and here.