Maria Sharapova joined evian at an event to support their "Live young Month" campaign at the Openhouse Gallery in New York City today. The 3-time Grand Slammer was decked out in Philip Lim shiny hotpants (legs, people, legs), a black Diane Von Furstenberg blazer, navy Cole Haan peeptoe sling backs and, of course, the tee with the Shrieka's head on a baby's body. Well, she didn't arrive in the tee but actually went and changed into it for the photo op. When duty calls....
Anyway, she started off by allowing us to take a bunch of photos followed by a welcome message to all. Then, she flaunted her ping pong and lefty skills (it's true!) with Extra's NY-based correspondent AJ Calloway who, incidentally, had his own version of the baby tee in African-American. No, the baby tees don't discriminate either. During their hitting session, she mocked his lobs and punished him with power. Really, she did.
If you peek in the background of this video you'll see her agent, Max Eisenbud, who was not only accompanying Shrieka but also her boy, LA Laker Sasha Vujacic (who can't be seen here but can be seen here), who's much cuter in person than I gave him credit for. Forgive me.
Here's Shrieka, after the shirt change, getting her pose seriously on. The girl can't get enough of the camera, really. Oh, you can see Calloway's baby tee in the background here. I wonder if they have a tee in Asian-American? I mean, they BETTAH.
After two more photo ops and a bit of a wait (thanks to @GVTennisNews, @RosenbergTennis and @ttanyone for helping kill the time there), we were led to an all-white back room where the roundtable was being held. We were asked to keep the questions focused her off-court life so they ranged from fashion, food, health and fitness, etc. You know, DEEP THOUGHTS.
I did ask her about the inspiration for the US Open day dress and if she could give us a hint on the night dress. She kinda answered my question but said the night dress will be revealed at tomorrow night's Nike Knockout Event. I'll be there and will be sure to take pictures of that number.
One bit of important news: she only needed a few days to recover from her foot injury and then went back to Florida to train for Flushing Meadows. Phew.
P.S. - I think I shot the best evian ad EVAH, though it could be less blurry. She could sell dirt and still make sick money. Lucky legs.
[Photo(s): DtL]
