Last year Forbes announced Maria Sharapova as the highest earning female athlete in the world for the 11th year running. The Russian tennis player was estimated to have earned €20.6 million purely in endorsements between June 2014 and June 2015.
In the same time period Serena Williams won four Grand Slam events in a row, lost just one of 41 matches and earned €8.1 million in prize money during the first seven months of 2015 alone. That's more than tennis legend Chris Evert and all but 35 female tennis players made over their entire careers.
Her total earnings – prize money and endorsements combined – added up to €22.2 million. Despite performing a long way off the standards of Williams during that period, Sharapova banked just under €27 million.
The blonde Russian is, quite simply, a marketing dream.
But the 28-year-old’s announcement on Monday that she failed a drugs test at this year’s Australian Open could see her banned from the sport for anything between one year and four years.
However, it will be the action taken by her sponsors that will have the biggest effect on the Sharapova’s bank account.
Already Nike has suspended its contract with the tennis player while Swiss luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer, which has had a relationship with Sharapova since 2004, said it has ceased negotiations with the Russian, whose previous contract had ended on December 31st last year.
Other endorsements for the former world No 1 include a three-year deal with Porsche, a five-year deal with Evian and contracts with Avon and Head tennis rackets.
Biggest effect
The suspension of her contract with Nike looks to be the one which will have the biggest effect on the five-time Grand Slam winner, however.
The deal – which is due to run until 2018 – is believed to be worth a total of €63.4 million over eight years.
It is interesting to note that the sportswear giant was one of the few sponsors to stand by Tiger Woods when news of the golfer's infidelities broke in 2009. However, this morning they became the first to cut ties with tennis player.
Sharapova also owns her own high-end gummy sweet brand, Sugarpova, launched in 2012 and now sold in 22 countries, and had plans to launch chocolate in a collaboration with Baron Chocolates this year.
Indeed when the sweet brand was launched she was rumoured to be considering changing her name to Sugarpova in what turned out to be no more than a PR stunt.
Due to recurring injuries to her rotator cuff and shoulder the Russian has only played four events in the last eight months, meaning that her on-court earnings have fallen dramatically.
Sharapova’s last tournament was the Australian Open in January, when she lost to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals. That was the event at which she failed a drug test because it turned up traces of Meldonium, which Sharapova claims she was taking to help with her health problems. The substance became illegal as of January 1st this year.
