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!