Sharapova nearly became Sugarpova
Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova announced she was planning to change her name to Sugarpova for the US Open tennis Grand Slam tournament, in a bid to promote her confectionery business of the same name.
Sharpova lodged an enquiry with the Supreme Court of Florida – her home state – over a quick name change in advance competition.
However, she decided to abandon the plan because of the difficulties it would have created for her travel commitments.
Her agent, Max Eisenbud, said: “We ultimately decided against it. Maria has pushed her team to do fun, out-of-the-box-type things to get the word out about Sugarpova … But at the end of the day, we would have to change all her identification, she had to travel to Japan and China right after the tournament and it was going to be very difficult.”
The confectionery range includes a variety of sugary and sour confectionery in shapes such as tennis balls and lips.
Meanwhile, The National Obesity Forum accused Sharapova of being “irresponsible” for using her sporting stardom to promote unhealthy eating.