Tennis: Sharapova Needs Winners

Maria Sharapova features twice in the latest issue of the American magazine Tennis. Both appearances, though, are full-page colour ads: for a mobile phone company and for a Swiss watch manufacturer. There is nothing about her exploits on the tennis court.

As the 2004 Wimbledon champion prepares to defend her title at the Women's Tour Championships in Los Angeles this week, Sharapova knows she needs to start winning again if she is to maintain the commercial clout that has made her the world's highest-earning sportswoman.

In the past 12 months, Sharapova's payments for product endorsement have gone through the $22 million barrier. She has swept past Serena Williams, who until 18 months ago had seemed the untouchable leader in the money-making stakes from endorsements and other commercial opportunities.

At this year's French Open, Sharapova admitted that the celebrity and wealth did have their downside, with bodyguards having to shadow her wherever she went. 'I don't like it when the bodyguards have to push people away from me to walk,' she said. 'I felt I was too much of a prima donna, but you just have to realise it's part of the game, it's for your own protection.'

Now some observers are beginning to wonder whether the protection she really needs is from the stresses of survivalat the top of an increasingly competitive women's game. Even her coach, Robert Lansdorp, has questioned the pressure being put on her by her father, Yuri Sharapova, who shares coaching responsibilities with Lansdorp and has long had a reputation as an unforgiving taskmaster.

Lansdorp has said there is too much shouting at the 18-year-old Sharapova and that she should be allowed to relax and play the instinctive tennis of which she is capable.

This year, Sharapova, although reaching world number one - a ranking she has relinquished to Lindsay Davenport - has not maintained the level of success that she would have liked after breaking through in 2004. She has failed to add a second grand-slam title to her Wimbledon crown and it is now nearly five months since she won a title of any description.

As well as losing matches she would have hoped to have won - including her semi-final against Venus Williams at Wimbledon - Sharapova has suffered a succession of niggling injuries that have increased speculation about her ability to withstand the pressure of keeping pace with the other leading players.

Davenport, Kim Clijsters and Amelie Mauresmo are among those who will be competing against Sharapova for the £1million first prize in Los Angeles. Although none of these can ever expect to attract the same commercial interest as the young Russian, who is as much at home on the catwalk as she is on the tennis court, they will have no qualms about trying to exploit any frailties that may be developing in her game.