World number two tennis player, Maria Sharapova, did not disappoint the audience at Wimbledon on her first-round match on June 24 and displayed a good fashion show by turning up in white tuxedo-style top and shorts. The new fashion line of Sharapova was the main subject of conversation at the end of the match and her easy win against French player Stephanie Foretz (6-1, 6-4) was of little interest at the follow-up news conference.

Fortunately, Sharapova is used to such attention from the media who have long-proclaimed her as one of the fashion icons in modern tennis.

So the main question after the match was not how Sharapova was planning to win a second Wimbledon title but why she chose to wear the tuxedo bib-fronted chiffon top and men’s shorts and, most importantly, was it actually comfortable?

As reported by Eurosport, the BBC and the Timesonline, Sharapova was more than ready to answer to the media’s intense interest in her comfort at the All England Club courts. 

“I love menswear in general, I love tuxedo jackets,” Sharapova was quoted by Eurosport. “It was fun doing it because, you know, it’s hard to do things different with white. There’s only so much you could do, so I thought, why not do shorts this year? I’ve never done it at a Grand Slam. If there’s one place to do it, it’s here.”

As reported by Timesonline, Sharapova put a lot of time into preparing for her first appearance at Wimbledon this year. As a real fashion icon, Sharapova did not want to be caught by surprise by her new outfit, however fashionable in might be, so, apparently,  the outfit was tested seven months ago, just to make sure that it would not restrict her movement and would blend beautifully with Wimbledon’s atmosphere.  Again, according to Timesonline, Sharapova was already planning her outfit for 2009.

“I know what I will be wearing even in the fall of 2009,” she was quoted as saying. 

And yet she expressed her amusement that so many media questions were about her choice of dress. If one examines her previous fashion stunts, it  appears that, for Sharapova, dressing is just as important as playing and her sponsorship contracts, worth millions of euro, prove it.

In 2006, the 19-year-old at the time played well with her teenage image and came out with her “powder blue, baby doll nightie look” as AFP called it. 

The next year she changed it with  “a pretty classy dress, like a lemon chiffon colour” as she told AFP.

This year Sharapova took her fashion outlook and attention to detail to a new level by wearing Tiffany designer Elsa Peretti’s Wave earrings in 18K gold at the French Open. She was even provided with a custom French Open tennis dress by Nike called the “Paris dress,” with a 1920s-inspired design.

Sharapova’s next fashion move will reveal itself in the course of Wimbledon, although she need not worry about having to follow her fellow Russian Anna Kournikova’s strategy, who became rich and famous more for her looks than her play, because Sharapova seems to have found a healthy balance.