Sharapova Sugarpova -- Aaarrggh

Maria Sharapova's attempt to change her name to Sugarpova for the length of the USO is fairly dismal news. Let's hope it gets blocked. Legally, there may not be much to stop it, but the tennis authorities should say no. What next ? Federer to become Roger FedEx? Berdych to become Bird's Eye? Hewitt to become Hooverit?

Serena Killiams... oh wait wrong game, sorry!

sirfredperry wrote: Berdych to become Bird's Eye?

He's entering the doubles with Mardy Fish-Fingers.

LuvSports! wrote:Serena Killiams... oh wait wrong game, sorry!

I've got it this time. Each letter represents a month. Take the number of days in that month and add the digits. Now spell that number and count how many... no, sorry, I've lost it again.

LS likes this comment ^^  

Marketing slave-ness gone wrong? What a sad state of affairs. She's becoming like Chokovic, more dance, books, entertainment, then court wins.

That would be dreadful if it were to happen. Surely she has enough publicity anyway without such a dire marketing ploy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/tennis/article-2397777/Maria-Sharapova-change-Sugarpova-US-Open.html

Look at what's she's been reduced to, candy cr@p, reminds me of Schumacher adverts with Tic-Tac. Nasty, tasteless, greedy and absolutely idiotic. Taking the p1ss on her supporters.

She would need to be in bed with me, and feed me those candies slowly, and just then maybe I would buy a packet of them.

Embarrassing story this. Tell her, you want to play in our GS tournament you enter with your real name. If you'd rather do advertisement for sugary sweets then **** off and go and do a TV commercial in those two weeks. End of.

I was just about to predict that this would quickly be U-turned and they would decide against it after all. But if you google the story you can see that they have already done that.

See here for example
http://espn.go.com/tennis/usopen13/story/_/id/9584846/2013-us-open-maria-sharapova-nixes-sugarpova-name-change

To be honest, I wonder if they planned is this way all along. Probably not, but it's a possibility.

Jimmy White changes his name to James Brown for the Snooker World Championship, didn't he? I really want this to happen because it's so ridiculous. I can't see any commentators or presenters going along with it.

He did indeed TSJ, although I think it might have been for the Masters rather than the World Championships. I know what you mean too, it is utterly ludicrous but would have been interesting to see to what degree pundits and the media went along with it.

Yes, it has all been called off, and a good thing too. Game, set and scratchcard, if you ask me.

I thought it was quite funny! Of course she never intended to change her name but just thinking about it got her front page of The Times. Considering that this papers tennis coverage is now so poor they haven't yet given the results of Canada or Cincinnati this was a bit of a coup...

I guess what's funny to one person is a cheap, tacky publicity stunt to another.

Of course, she never intended to change her name, but why even get into the realms of pretending she might. Agreed it certainly worked and now more people know about her Sugarpova sweets. But in performing such a cheap publicity stunt, her image has gone down in many people's estimations. Surely she doesn't need to (or want to) get into Katie Price territory.

Anyway, more to the point, what was The Times doing allowing itself to be used as PR in this way? And what was Neil Harman doing in Cincinnati if he didn't report on the tennis?

^ My guess is that Neil Harman is no longer acting as a tennis reporter but has joined Murray's extensive team working on his PR. Coverage of both Montreal and Canada stopped abruptly once Murray lost. So nothing about the Nadal/Djokovic match or the Nadal/Federer match or even who won either the men's or women's events at the time. Later Harman made passing reference to the Nadal/Djokovic match. He said something about it being "spicy" because Djokovic got hit with a ball (echoing a tweet by Murray) but I don't think he said who won.

On Monday there was an article about Dan Evans and other British hopefuls accompanied by a picture of an emotional Murray clutching the Wimbledon trophy. Nothing about Nadal's win in Cincinnati or even how the win affected Murray. Some smart alec in the comments has said something about how it's an odd picture of Nadal and the Cincinnati trophy. Ha ha!

Now Neil has arrived in NY and has been on a Murray pilgrimage. He tweeted about a place that holds a special place in his heart.

A venue with so many great memories for me #msg pic.twitter.com/UspkZj6aE5

https://twitter.com/NeilHarmanTimes

Ha ha! I did literally lol. But I don't things are looking good for anyone who wants to read about the tennis at the US Open...

Cheap and tacky? Back in the day no self respecting tennis star would stoop so low...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InJzaIR3b7M

I reckon Borg retired so that he too wouldn't have to join in.

hawkeye wrote:Cheap and tacky? Back in the day no self respecting tennis star would stoop so low...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InJzaIR3b7M

I reckon Borg retired so that he too wouldn't have to join in.

I think you'll find that Borg also did tacky adverts:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57j7Csg_kng

Well, we won't be seeing (or hearing ..... ) the leggy Masha on court at the USO, and she now has more important things to worry about than a change of name.

She has withdrawn with a shoulder injury.

Her withdrawal - is this another marketing ploy ? Reminds me of a particularly wily politician whose death prompted his rivals to ask: "I wonder what he meant by that ?"

Hahaha, nice one.

Will MaSha be cheering her beau Dimi @USO?  

laverfan wrote:Will MaSha be cheering her beau Dimi @USO?  

Cheering him during his first round exit