For reasons that have never been adequately explained, tennis players are asked to sign a camera lens after victories at some tournaments. Most illegibly scrawl their name and it shows up reversed to viewers at home, like when you write on a mirror. Sometimes, players will use the forum to send good vibes to others, like when Andy Murray wrote a message to his cancer-stricken friend. And then there's Maria Sharapova, who has written two cryptic messages after her first two wins at the BNP Paribas Open in California and won't explain them to reporters. Intrigue!
When asked what the messages meant, Sharapova said, "it's kind of a secret," as if she was concealing a Da Vinci Code-like mystery that has ties to the Illuminati, Nick Bollettieri, papal conclave and hidden messages in backhand grunts.
That seemed straightforward enough. The Tennis Channel said Sharapova gained 3,000 followers to her 140,000 Twitter fans after she wrote the message. She was building the brand, we guessed.
Then on Sunday, following a tough two-set win over Carla Suarez Navarro, Sharapova went deeper, writing "Who Knows?"
"Tweet me?" "Who knows?" It's like Sharapova is stealing her thoughts from a bag of Valentine's Day conversation hearts.
"I was really hoping no one would ask me," Sharapova said of the messages after the match. "There are a few people who know about it and I thought they'd have a good laugh. It's just between me and them and not going past those people."
Maybe we're on to something with the discussion about conversation hearts.Sharapova's candy line, Sugarpova, has transformed her into a sugar baron. The company is set to release three new products over the next month. Could this be guerrilla marketing to hype the upcoming launch of hard candy with sassy messages written on them?
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