Miami / SONY, Federer, Nadal, Sharapova, and Williams Update

Written by: Staff on 24th March 2014

Wimbledon Championships 2012 Winners Ball

Miami / SONY, Federer, Nadal, Sharapova, and Williams Update

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 08: Seven time Wimbledon Men's Champion Roger Federer attends the Wimbledon Championships 2012 Winners Ball at the InterContinental Park Lane Hotel on July 8, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images) |

Players In Miami Are Working For Their Sponsors

The sport’s top names put in some work for their sponsors before playing their opening matches at Miami.

Maria Sharapova did her part to maintain her status as the top-earning women’s athlete, showing at the JW Marquis hotel on Monday for a Tag Heuer event. Sharapova took part in a clinic with guests of the company. . . On Tuesday, she was in attendance at Porsche Media Night at Bar Harbor, posing in front of a Panamera S E-Hybrid.

Roger Federer stepped out on Wednesday, appearing at the Moet and Chandon ‘Tiny Tennis’ event at Club 50 in Viceroy Miami. . . Federer also took in a Miami Heat game on Friday, afterwards talking to LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and other members of the NBA team.

Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, spent some of the day playing a webcast online poker game for charity. Organizers PokerStars donated $5,000 to Care International for the event.

Players Wearing Venus Williams’ Apparel

As her tennis begins to take once again flight again in Miami, businesswoman Venus Williams is also feeling the success of her fashion line, with the company highlighted with Russian Alisa Kleybanova and American Victoria Duval playing in the Williams-designed gear.

Williams, 33, has carved out a small niche in the competitive tennis market with her EleVen clothing, for which she naturally serves as the main on-court model.

Kleybanova and Duvall faced off this month at Indian Wells both sporting the Williams look: “I was so excited. My dad called me and said, ‘There are two players wearing EleVen.’ I turned it on. I was so excited. That’s a big moment for EleVen, having other players wearing the clothes and to be playing at the same time.

“It’s huge. It was great to see the girls looking good and playing well in the clothes.”

William said that she has a special feel for cancer survivor Kleybanova, her first signing. “I have always admired her. We have always had great matches. With her comeback, I just thought it would be great if she wore the brand.

“Thankfully she likes it. I think she’s having a lot of fun wearing the clothes. She’s a fighter. She’s a wonderful fighting spirit. I just, you know, have so much respect for her bravery.”

Williams is hoping to carry her fashion career forward once she’s off the court for good, much as Maria Sharapova expects to do with her Sugarpova sweets. “I love EleVen. It’s been growing every year, basically. We’re not as big as a lot of the other companies or really any of the other companies, but I think what we stand for is something real and true and people are able to understand it.

“I think that’s because of the way that it’s grown and that we really do have a choice. And also because it represents me. That’s I think what makes it so different.”

We Hear —

—That HEAD announced that its partnership with Maria Sharapova will continue until at least 2016. The current No. 7 in the WTA singles world ranking is a four-time Grand Slam event winner and one of only six women in the Open Era to complete a career Grand Slam in singles.

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Topics: 10sballs, Maria Sharapova, Miami, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Sony Open, Tennis, tennis update, Venus Williams