Although it may not be considered her best season, 2015 marked Maria Sharapova’s 5th consecutive year in the Top 5 in the end of the year ranking. The Russian, 5 time Major champion, suffered of a leg injury which forced her to pull out of the summer hard court season in North America. Although a disappointing season for her standard, she still managed, for the 11th straight year, to be the highest paid female athlete according to Forbes Magazine. $29.7 million revenue of which 23 came from endorsement. Second in this list is long time rival Serena Williams, who stopped at “only” $24.6 million.
But where does all this success in business come from? Like in her game, persistency and perseverance are the two key factors for her winning strategy. She’s among the most popular female athletes on social media, with almost 2 million followers on Twitter and over 15 million fans on Facebook, with her personally taking care of the posts to let her fans informed about her life both on and off the court.
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Her oldest collaboration with the multinational corporation Nike started when she was only 11, and that has still to come to an end. Through Nike she produces her own line of clothing and she is now under an eight year, $70 million contract. In 2014 she became the first ever female ambassador of the German automobile manufacturer Porsche. Among her sponsors we find Evian, a popular European brand of water, and Tag Heuer.
But if you think that most of her money comes from the above endorsement, you’re way off track. Like others in the field (e.g. Carmelo Anthony), Sharapova is not only a great athlete, but also an amazing businesswoman. In 2012 she invested half a million of her money to launch her own brand of gummy candies “Sugarpova”. In the first semester she sold over 30,000 bags and today the line consists of 12 flavors and is being sold in 30 countries. Last year she sold over 5 million bags. Recently she also added clothing and jewelry to her brand. In 2016 she’s preparing to launch chocolate in the market under a separate label called ChocoPova, as announced recently on her Twitter profile.
In 2013 she even thought about changing her last name into Sugarpova at the US Open. Unfortunately she got injured and had to withdraw from the tournament, but we know for sure that she started to file a court case in Florida (state in where she lives) to officially change her last name, explaining she would have eventually gone back to her original one after the competition was over.
Not tired of her business activities, she decided to get herself a special gift for her 27th birthday. Last year she became Co-Investor and Co-Owner of SUPERGOOP!, a premium brand of sunscreen and other skin products. Together with founder and CEO Holly Thaggard, they launched “Project Black Dot”, a campaign that aims to end skin cancer in America. Their goal is to increase awareness among young students about the importance of sunscreen and skin cancer.
Sharapova with her foundation has also been really active as a UNDP (United Nations Development Program) Goodwill Ambassador, donating money to support social causes, with a strong focus on causes regarding people affected by the Chernobyl explosion in 1986, after her family had to leave the area because of the accident. She was eventually born in Siberia in 1987, a year after the disaster. Other projects revolve around poverty and climate change.
But it was at the last US Open where fans could truly engage with Sharapova on a tennis court. Although not part of the draw, she still managed to be present at Flushing Meadows. Thanks to a two-year deal with American Express, the financial company brought a digital version of the Russian champion. “You vs. Sharapova” gave the chance to any tennis fan during the two weeks span of the tournament to play against Sharapova in a simulated environment.
Thanks to HTC Vive headsets with VR virtual technology, tennis lovers were put in the middle of a virtual tennis court and with a black stick (a tennis racket) could, or at least try, return serves and rally some points like real champions.
This was possible thanks to Reel FX, which used a lot of techniques used in the movies. A motion-sensitive camera first captured Sharapova’s body and movements. First filmed with a regular tennis outfit, she then wore motion sensors in order to create a computer-made skeleton. Then she was scanned by a 3D laser. The final stage was to cover the skeleton with a wire-frame mesh to represent the human skin.
After special effects are applied to the mesh, the final product was a perfect virtual Sharapova. This whole process took approximately seven months, including a lot of testing on movements, to make it as natural as possible.
Her plans, of course, don’t stop here. She’s currently working on her autobiography, which, according to Sharapova herself, should be published in 2017. Now she’s working to be back next year stronger, aiming to capture a Slam title and the gold medal at the Olympics in Rio.