Maria stars in new Nike Air Commercial!

Just incase you haven't seen it already we thought we would post the video of Maria starring in the new Nike ad campaign. Definitely worth the watch if you haven't seen it already!

Maria to Debut new Prince Racquet and Bag Line at the Australian Open.

We are hours away from the start of the 2010 Australian Open and apart from kicking off proceedings on the main court, Rod Laver Arena, Maria Sharapova will also be unveilling her new Prince racquet and Bag line for the 2010 season.

Maria's racquet of choice is the new Prince EXO³ Black which is the lates upgrade of the EXO3 range of frames.

I picked up the EXO³ Black and immediately loved the sound the ball made coming off the string bed – something very important to me,” said Maria.  “I also felt as though I could generate the power and comfort I need on balls I have to reach for or are out of my traditional hitting zone, but was receiving additional control in the process.  The engineering team at Prince did an incredible job taking an already great playing racquet and enhancing it with the EXO³ technology.  This racquet is going to be a winner for a wide range of players.” 

As well as a new racquet, Maria will also be stepping onto the hard courts down under with a new Prince tennis bag which she has worked to create in line with her desire to bring fashion to the tennis courts.

The new bag line has been designed and inspired by Maria herself and will be part of the Limited Edition Sharapova Collection.

“With the bag, the Prince product development team and I decided to push the boundaries of traditional racquet bag design silhouettes to develop a new look that incorporates my fashion sense, while at the same time providing the functionality that players need on-court,” said Sharapova.  “It was a lot of fun to work on and I am excited to make it available to everyone.” 

Combining this with the new fashion forward and performance enhancing dress Maria has co-designed with Nike for the Australian Open, Maria should look, not only the fierce competitor on court, but the fashionable one.  

First Competition of 2010!

Want to win a unique Maria twitter background inspired by the Australian Open in time for the first Grand Slam of the year to kick off?

If the answer is yes then enter our competition and you could be the lucky winner.

All you have to do is print off our poster from here: http://twitpic.com/vt75r and use your imagination to find a unique place to put it to show your support for Maria's Australian Open campaign.

Send us a pic on twitter or to mariaupdates@hotmail.com and if we think where you have stuck the poster is creative and unique you could be our winner.

You have until the 20th of January to enter!

Don't forget you can find the poster to print here: http://twitpic.com/vt75r

Good Luck!

One from the Archives

As Maria is playing in the upcoming tournaments in Tokyo and Beijing we thought we would share this video of Maria taking part in a special event in Tokyo in 2006.

Maria featured in new AW77 Nike Campaign.

Maria has taken part in a campaign to promote the AW77 hoodie from Nike SportsWear, one of the brand's most iconic pieces.

The campaign was shot over four months in three different cities and featured 7 of Nike's most promenent athletes, shot by world renowned photographer David Sims and  styled and directed by Karl Templer. Each athlete brought their own style, personality and attitude to the shoot to tell the story. 


Maria Sharapova: "My sport involves fashion. So I get to express my individuality through what I wear on court. But, I also must feel comfortable for competition. This also transmits to off the court." "Compared to what we have to do on the tennis court, photo shoots might be considered an easier task. I think at these photo shoots and being around many people, it's all about just focusing on yourself and just being comfortable. It's actually a little similar to tennis games. When you go inside the court, there are so many people around and talking and having opinions, but it's just you and the opponent and that's it." 


Watch the Video for the AW77 Hoodie here:





Thanks to Freshness Mag for the video.

With the amount of errors I made from both my groundstrokes and my serve, to be able to get it to three sets is not bad.

Unfortunately, by Maria's own admission, the amount of errors she made in her 3rd round match against Melanie Oudin cost her the match. Maria claiming "So if I didn't make those errors, those double faults, I certainly would have won the match." 


Both players had a nervy start to the match on serve and it was difficult for either player to hold. However Maria managed to hold at the key moments and her return game was much stronger, allowing her to take the first set 6-3. 

However Oudin lifted her game and with Maria's level decreasing and serving becoming increasingly more difficult for her, Melanie soon raced to a 5-1 lead. Although Sharapova rallied and got it back to 5-4 Oudin managed to serve out the second set, taking it 6-4.

The third set was full of drama and momentum shifts and both players were having difficulty holding their serve. However Maria, playing at well below her best and at times looking frustrated and uncomfortable was unable to fight off the feisty American and with a mounting error and double fault count surrendered the set 5-7 to Melanie Oudin.

Melanie Oudin is having a breakthrough US Open this year, having all ready defeated Dementieva and now thwarting Sharapova's chances of her first Grand Slam since her return to the tour.

Sharapova's is scheduled to play only two more WTA tournaments this year in Tokyo (end of September) and Beijing (start of October) and after which will have time to recover and sort out any issues with the serve and her new abbreviated motion. Having had a relatively short time to work on her new serving motion it is understandable that there has been relative problems and inconsistency with it.

Nevertheless Maria is going to have to sort out those problems in order to allow the confidence in her serving to grow. If she can't find some sort of happy medium with the serve then the question may be asked; will Maria ever return to the kind of form that saw her capture her 3rd Grand Slam in Australia early 2008. Only time will tell if Maria has the answer.

Maria's Round 3 Match preview!

After Maria thwarted the chances of an all-american round 3 meeting by defeating Christina McHale under the lights on Thursday evening, 6-2 6-1, she progressed to meet Melanie Oudin. Oudin being the surprise winner who took out #4 ranked Elena Dementieva in what was arguably the shock of the women's draw so far.

The upset proving Melanie Oudin of the USA is a big stage player (she also defeated Jankovic at Wimbledon this year) and could be a dangerous opponent given the fact she runs everything down, and makes her opponents play alot of balls. Oudin's game is solid with no obvious weakness and she can mix it up relatively well.

Maria will need to focus in order to come through this match up unscathed. Maria will need to adjust quickly not only to the different conditions of playing a Day match compared to a Night match, but also to the varying pace of shot Oudin will present her with. Look for Melanie to play alot of sliced backhands to try and throw Maria off her rhythm and open the court. She can also move the ball around the court well which could prove a problem for Maria if she's unable to get time on the ball. Melanie is definitely a step up from Maria's previous opponents and she will be full of confidence after putting out the #4 seed.

Nevertheless, Maria having won the US Open title in 2006 and having a wealth of experience on the Grand Slam stage should be able to pull through the match, her groundstrokes proving the deciding factor wearing down Oudin in both pace and consistency. However it will no doubt be less straightforward than her first two matches and Maria will need to serve well to keep the pressure on Melanie Oudin.