Tennis stars are making headlines and … money not only on court  but also (read mostly) off court.

•  Maria Sharapova joins Cole Haan Sporting line. (On the Baseline)
• American Sam Querrey signed two deals while at U.S. Open, with Olympus and Zappos.com. Querrey joins fellow tennis player John Isner as the only professional tennis players with endorsement deals with Olympus. (Olympus)
• Russian Anna Chakvetadze reportedly is planning to sign an apparel deal with Fila.  (Sports Business Journal)
• Adidas plans to launch a tennis racket next year and wants Novak Djokovic to be the endorser. (Sports Business Journal)

Though Novak Djokovic has failed to defend his title and lost in his opening match at the Sony Ericsson Open, his publicity campaign is going strong. Following Roger Federer’s steps, Djokovic is featured in the April issue of the Men’s Vogue magazine.

(Photographed by Frederike Helwig at the Monte Carlo Country Club in Monaco, where Djokovic now lives and trains. Ralph Lauren Black Label blazer, $695, jacket, $225, and pants, $325; polo.com. Adidas shoes.)

Pacific Life Open photos.

March 14, 2008,

Pacific Life Open.

Q. Do you plan on playing? Because Andy pulled out of it because he thought it was too close to the US Open for him. What are your thoughts about it? And can you excel at both the Open and the Olympics since it’s so close together?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: The Olympics comes around only once every four years, and the US Open is there every single year. I don’t know if he’s played the Olympics before. But, you know, obviously I never have, and it’s been a dream of mine ever since I was a little girl.
So it’s been one of my priorities for a very long time. You know, I’m privileged to be part of so many athletes. You know, I really don’t know what to expect, because usually you play the same events every single year. You go from tournament to tournament.
I think this will be just completely new and different, and usually you have sort of an idea of what things are going to be like, but I’m really clueless. I’m just — one of the things I’m really looking forward to is the opening ceremony and walking with all the athletes and, you know, athletes from my country, yeah, in front of thousands of people.

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Serbian Novak Djokovic made a guest appearance yesterday on Jay Leno’s Tonight show. If you missed it, still can check it out on youtube.

Masters Cup, Shanghai - Andy Roddick to Novak Djokovic about his tendency to bounce the ball numerous times before serving.

“I could make like eight phone calls and order a pizza by the time you hit a service.”

Another great win by Argentine David Nalbandian. The 25-year-old unseeded Nalbandian outclassed world No 3 Novak Djokovic with a 6-4 7-6 victory to reach his first final of the year. As I said in my previous post, the guy can beat anyone on any surface IF he is in the zone. This week has been his “Zone” week.

Nalbandian’s main weakness has been his inability to close matches and win on important points. He has always been underestimated by the media and experts. He is not media favorite because he doesn’t have typical marketable personality and doesn’t like talking to them after he loses matches (his press conferences are just awful). Since I am a biased Nalbandian fan, I attribute it to the language and cultural barrier he has with English-speaking crowd:-) Otherwise he is quite nice and friendly when he speaks Spanish:-) Still I think David needs a PR consultant to better market his image.

Peter Bodo’s blog reveals a nice secret about David. His full name is … (are you ready for this?) Gervasio Esteban David Ezequiel Nalbandian.

Gervasio Esteban David Ezequiel Nalbandian will face world number one Roger Federer in Sunday’s final.

 Well, apparently Novak Djokovic is not only good at playing tennis in an empty swimming pool.

There have been many media reports about how Novak Djokovic, world No. 3 tennis player, along with his childhood friend Ana Ivanovic, currently ranked No 6, practiced in an empty swimming pool while growing up in Belgrad. A sports club official drained an Olympic-size swimming pool in the winter and put down a green carpet and net.

Ana Ivanovic is the first Serbian woman to reach a Grand Slam final at Roland Garros since Monica Seles. The 20-year-old Djokovic is ranked No. 3 after winning four titles this year and reaching the U.S. Open final only to lose the top-ranked Roger Federer.

Don’t we love those Cinderella stories?

(Photo source: wtatour.ru)

Oh well.. . Federer loses his Grand Slam virginity….NOOOT! The Swiss maestro (as many media commentators call him) has won his 12th Grand Slam title.

I wonder how he still manages to pretend that he is sooo shocked by the victory. Yes, he is a great player, loves speaking about how it is important to promote the sport, but the mere fact that he keeps winning non-stop makes those slams so boring. Good for him, but boring for many tennis fans. I wonder if his fans still get excited and thrilled by his victories.

After Federer’s win, I have been following the discussions going around in the tennis blogosphere. Apparently there are many out there that don’t like Djokovic’s djocks, his constant not-really-justified medical time-outs, and the media hype:-)

I think the problem here is not Djokovic but the way American media work. If there was no Djokovic, there would have been somebody else (remember Marcos Baghdatis hype?). Whoever gives them a good meat to chew on, they will make him/her the media darling. Djokovic is smart enough to realize it and how he can benefit from it. It is a win-win situation. If the player doesn’t have media-likable-marketable personality, (regardless of how good their game is) he/she is very likely to be ignored by the American media. Davydenko and Nalbandian (when he was in top 5) are perfect examples of it.