Sharapova signals intent for US Open

If Maria Sharapova wins the US Open, which starts at Flushing Meadows on Monday, she will at least be assured of having a mobile phone that works.

The 17-year-old Wimbledon champion's struggle to get a signal on centre court following her final victory over Serena Williams was one of the many enduring images of her run at SW19, images that transformed her into one of the world's most marketable athletes.

She has just signed a deal with Motorola, which according to some reports is worth up to $2m (£1.1m) annually for three years, while other sponsors are said to be salivating at the prospect of having their product associated with her.

"I'd never won a major before so I didn't know what to expect after Wimbledon," she said, after placing the phone company's latest product where the photographers could see it.

"There is a lot to learn from winning a major. As a player you learn so much about your game and about yourself from playing seven matches in a row and doing that successfully. [But] I've learned that there is a limit to how much attention you pay to all the stuff that comes with it."

It is hard to gauge how much winning Wimbledon and the attendant dollar signs have dazzled Sharapova but her form since then, at lesser tournaments, suggested problems in adjusting to working at the more prosaic stops on the circuit. In the three events she has played over the summer she has won just three matches and she lost in the opening round in New Haven earlier this week, to the world No81 Mashona Washington.

Whatever her results on the American hardcourt circuit, such is the white heat surrounding her that few will be surprised if she wins her second grand slam title at Flushing Meadows, despite going out in the second round last year in her first appearance there.

"I love the expectations because it's just another challenge and I love challenges," she said. "There's no doubt winning a small tournament called Wimbledon gives you a lot of confidence."

Winning the US Open would give her even more, and if she does her new sponsors will, no doubt, be feeling very smug about their investment. "I've already got my new phone," she said. "So I'm prepared."