The Divine Miss M Is Pretty, Good

It was April 19, 1987, and God was feeling pretty good. So He created Maria Sharapova.

He knew about tennis, better than anybody else, of course. He knew about its needs and what its future would be by the time Andre Agassi had played himself out, Roger Federer was becoming so dominant he was boring the public, Lindsay Davenport had her mind on beginning a family and the Williams sisters started losing interest. He knew it would take something special to fill that superstar gap.

He decided to go for somebody with movie-star looks and a huge game, somebody who would bring as much attention to the sport on court as off. He had long ago broken the Anna Kournikova mold.

His creation would have to be good enough to win Wimbledon when she was 17, and become No. 1 in the world when she was 18, only the 15th woman ever to achieve that ranking. He made her Russian and, as she grew into her teenage years, made sure she saw a map of Florida.

He knew that so much of sports in her day, including the time of the U.S. Open in 2006, would be as much about perception as reality, and he needed somebody to bridge that gap. He knew Nike would help him there.

So now, as everybody around Sharapova serenades her about “feeling pretty” in the current TV commercial, she is ready. She can merely look that part for the audience that buys perception, and reject it for those who want reality. The message is clear, in both the commercial and the way she wants to be: Sure, I look good, but boy, can I play.

This only works because the subject, Sharapova, is worthy.

Tonight, weather permitting, she will play her third-round match, facing another seeded Russian, Elena Likhovtseva. Sharapova is No. 3, Likhovtseva No. 32. It will be the first match on the main court, Arthur Ashe Stadium. It is the showcase court and she is a showcase player.

Especially because there is so much more there than blue eyes and long, blond hair.

She is already playing in her 16th consecutive Grand Slam tournament, and her Wimbledon title in 2004 established her as the fourth-youngest female ever to do that. In addition to that Wimbledon title, she has made it to semifinals at the Australian, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year and at the Australian and Wimbledon this year.

She seems especially ready to make a huge statement at this U.S. Open.

She was the fifth woman to reach, in the same year, the finals of both the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments, those rich, consecutive almost-majors played in March. She won at Indian Wells, beating fellow Russian Elena Dementieva, and lost the final in Miami to fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. Then she won again recently in San Diego, another Tier I event on the women’s tour.

“I definitely feel physically stronger this year,” she says. “I feel a lot fitter than I did last year.

“But then, those are just words.”

Ah, words. When it comes to Sharapova, many publications are leaning toward something worth a thousand of those.

In Thursday’s New York Times, a huge picture of her playing in her newly designed, Audrey Hepburn-influenced black tennis dress led the sports section. And on pages 2 and 10 of the main news section, display ads featured Sharapova. One, for a sports specialty store, stressed her “Model Citizen” side. The other, for an expensive watch, had her ask, with a steady gaze, “What are you made of?”

All the discussion of how much her off-court marketing activities might affect her on-court success has been just that, so far. Discussion. Like the commercial, where everybody else tells her to feel pretty and she just focuses on crushing the tennis ball, she continues to prove that she can set priorities.

“I love doing the things I do off court,” she says. “I enjoy them. They are fun opportunities for my career. But my passion is still on the court.”

She is well aware that it is all a creative process.