The biggest loser in sporting history: Sharapova's drug shame could cost her £100million 

Lost sponsorship: Tennis star Maria Sharapova is pictured in Los Angeles yesterday wearing Nike clothing - even after the companmy cut ties with her

She has been the best-paid female athlete in the world for 11 years, earning more off the tennis court than on it. Not any more.

Maria Sharapova, 28, could now become the biggest financial loser in sporting history, missing out on estimated future earnings of as much as £100million ($142million).

Her biggest sponsors Nike, Porsche, and TAG Heuer all moved to cut ties with the Russian tennis star after she failed a drugs test.

Sportswear giant Nike last night said it was putting its relationship with the five times Grand Slam winner on hold and was ‘saddened and surprised’ by her conduct.

Porsche suspended promotional work with her, while watchmaker TAG Heuer said it would not be renewing Sharapova’s contract.

Other firms who contribute to her staggering earnings are likely to follow suit. It is unlikely any firm will pay to be associated with such a high-profile drug cheat.

And as former Wimbledon winner Sharapova also faces a four-year ban from tennis she will be unable to earn any money on the court.

She will even have to pay back the £209,000 ($300,000) she earned for reaching the quarter-final of this year’s Australian Open – the tournament at which she failed the test, and which now may prove to be her last. 

By the time the ban is over she is likely to remain damaged goods as far as sponsors and advertisers are concerned.

Sharapova also has deals with Evian, American Express, tennis equipment maker Head and jewellers Tiffany & Co, who last night had yet to respond. Cosmetics company Avon declined to comment.

But they are all understood to be preparing a response to Sharapova’s shock announcement on Monday night that she made a ‘huge mistake’ after lawfully taking meldonium for ten years for claimed health reasons – but continuing to do so after it was added to a list of banned substances in January.

Top of their game: Serena Williams (pictured with Sharapova following the Wimbledon 2004 ladies' singles final) has amassed £52.8million ($75m) in prize money but is worth significantly less overall, at just over £100million ($142m)

She said it had been prescribed by her family doctor for health issues, including sickness, magnesium deficiency and ‘irregular’ heart test results – as well as due to a family history of diabetes.

To compound matters, she insists neither she nor her coaching staff saw the email sent out in December saying that from January 1 this year, the substance would be banned.

The US-based star, ranked seventh in the world, has an estimated wealth of £137million, more than any other tennis player, although her prize money of £25.8million amounts to less than a fifth of the total.

Serena Williams has amassed £52.8million ($75m) in prize money but is worth significantly less overall, at just over £100million (142m). The days of easy money now look over for Sharapova.

The Russian player had been enjoying the fruits of an eight-year £50million deal with Nike that she signed in 2010. She was first associated with the firm when just 11.

A spokesman for watch maker TAG Heuer said: ‘We had been in talks to extend our collaboration. In view of the current situation, the brand has decided not to renew the contract with Sharapova.’

Cheats: A sports marketing expert said Sharapova’s losses could be bigger than those of Tiger Woods (left) after he was caught cheating on his wife, and Lance Armstrong (right) after he was exposed as a drug cheat

Huge cost: Former Wimbledon winner Sharapova (pictured speaking in Los Angeles on Monday about her failed drug test) faces a four-year ban from tennis - and will therefore be unable to earn any money on the court

Porsche had signed a three-year deal with Sharapova in 2013 to become its first female ambassador. 

FELLOW PLAYERS SERVE UP SUPPORT 

Despite failing a drug test, Maria Sharapova was last night offered some support from fellow players.

Tennis great Martina Navratilova (right) – who discovered Sharapova’s talent in Russia – had kind words for the former Wimbledon champion.

‘Hope this gets cleared up,’ Navratilova wrote on Twitter. ‘It seems to be an honest mistake.’

Meanwhile her long-term rival Serena Williams praised the way Sharapova had handled the revelations. 

‘Most people were shocked,’ said the star, who has won 19 of her 21 matches with Sharapova. ‘At the same time I think people were happy she was upfront. [It] showed a lot of courage to admit what she had done. It’s taking responsibility.’

However, there was a harsh response from Jennifer Capriati, a former world number one who was forced to retire with injuries in 2004. ‘I’m extremely angry,’ she said. ‘I had to lose my career and never opted to cheat. I had to throw in the towel and suffer.’

Other players expressed surprise that Sharapova and her team failed to check the updated drug list, with some describing it as a ‘blow to the sport’.

Last night a spokesman said: ‘We are saddened by the recent news announced by Maria Sharapova. Until further details are released and we can analyse the situation, we have chosen to postpone planned activities.’

Sports marketing expert Nigel Currie said Sharapova’s losses could be bigger than those of Tiger Woods after he was caught cheating on his wife, and of cyclist Lance Armstrong after he was exposed as a drug cheat.

Mr Currie said: ‘If Maria does get a four-year ban then that probably is it for her as a top tennis player – and we are talking about potential losses of £100million ($142m).

‘Her player earnings pale into insignificance compared to her off-court endorsement and she has been the highest-paid sportswoman for 11 years and is a marketing dream.

‘Maria has blue-chip sponsors with huge contracts and they will all be looking at this situation very seriously.’

Nike had been just as swift to cut ties with boxer Manny Pacquiao last month when he made homophobic comments, showing that big companies will not wait before acting any more.

Sharapova is a former world number one, who won her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon in 2004, and went on to win four more.

She is one of just ten women to complete the career Grand Slam, winning Wimbledon, the Australian Open, US Open and French Open.

Forbes magazine has ranked her as the highest-paid female athlete in the world for the past 11 years.

At her press conference Sharapova said of her drug test failure: ‘I made a huge mistake, and I’ve let my fans down. I’ve let this sport down that I have been playing since the age of 4 and that I love so deeply’.

MELDONIUM: SIX-WEEK DRUG THAT SHARAPOVA USED FOR TEN YEARS 

The drug Maria Sharapova took for a decade is usually taken for no longer than six weeks, its manufacturers said last night.

At her shock press conference, Sharapova said she had ‘legally’ been taking meldonium – which is not licensed in the US where she lives – since 2006 because ‘it made me healthy’.

But Latvian firm Grindeks, the maker of the drug, said: ‘Depending on the patient’s condition, a course of meldonium may vary from four to six weeks. Only physicians can decide whether they should continue for longer.’

A manufacturing operator works on the packaging of meldonium in the Grindeks production plant in Riga

Sharapova claims the drug was prescribed by her doctor to tackle health issues including magnesium deficiency, early indications of diabetes and ‘irregular’ heart test results. 

However Grindeks has previously said that it can also provide ‘improvement of work capacity of healthy people at physical and mental overloads’. 

Some sportsmen believe meldonium boosts the body’s use of the oxygen in the blood, therefore improving physical endurance.

Yesterday the firm tried to distance itself from the claims that it might improve athletic performance, suggesting it might even do the opposite.

The company did not comment when asked whether the drug would be suitable for a patient with the symptoms described by Sharapova, simply saying it was designed for those with heart and circulation conditions, or recovering from illness.

Meldonium is not available from legitimate chemists in Britain and western Europe, but can be bought online.Reporters in Moscow yesterday also had no trouble buying it over the counter.

DAVID JONES: The dark past that drove Maria Sharapova's obsession to win and get rich

Speaking in LA: Maria Sharapova had chosen a suitably mournful black outfit, wore minimal make-up and kept her pretty head bowed

She had chosen a suitably mournful black outfit, wore minimal make-up and kept her pretty head bowed. She spoke in self-admonishing and slightly bewildered tones, and clasped her hands penitently on the lectern.

But let no one be fooled. Every apologetic sigh, every remorseful toss of her bottle-blonde tresses would have been cynically choreographed with the aim of keeping sponsorship deals worth £20million a year.

The act was, as we now know, to no avail. And as a host of companies – from sportswear giant Nike to watch-maker TAG Heuer and Porsche – suspended their relationship with Maria Sharapova, one question above all remained.

Why, with the eyes of the world on her, and her multimillion-fortune at stake, did she risk everything by taking the pills?

Having reported on her career since she was 17 years old, and watched as she caused one of the biggest upsets tennis has seen by demolishing the seemingly invincible Serena Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final, I can offer some clues.

Let’s start with her childhood. Sharapova’s was troubled to the point of dysfunction. Though her parents Yuri and Yelena hail from Chernobyl, they moved to Siberia shortly before her birth, in 1987.

According to the Sharapova legend, they were fleeing the fall-out from the nuclear disaster the previous year. But relatives and friends say Yuri, then a builder, was driven by money, and moved to boost his salary by working in the oil fields.

Talent: Sharapova holds the Wimbledon ladies' singles trophy in 2004 with her father Yuri, who spotted his only daughter’s exceptional co-ordination as they knocked a tennis ball about on a rutted court

He tried and failed to become a professional cyclist and skier before spotting his only daughter’s exceptional co-ordination as they knocked a tennis ball about on a rutted court. She was just three years old – and while he was to make considerable sacrifices for her talent, he quickly surmised she could provide his passport to riches.

Within a year the family were moving again, this time to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the climate and facilities were far better suited to tennis. Then, when Sharapova was six, he scraped enough money together to move with her to Florida, where many of the world’s best coaches are based.

They couldn’t afford to take Yelena (who in any case couldn’t obtain a permit to travel outside the old Soviet Union) so mother and daughter were wrenched apart, and would not see one another for two years until Yelena was able to join them.

Sharapova was deeply unhappy during those early years in America. Jealous of her ability, wealthy girls at the Bollettieri Tennis Academy – where she won a scholarship – teased her over her accent and because her father worked as a restaurant dishwasher.

However, Yuri drove her with a ruthless single-mindedness. One of Sharapova’s coaches likened him to an Eastern Bloc spy who would lurk beside the courts, snooping on other girls’ training sessions and taking notes. He made her practise until her hands were blistered, and berated her when she fell short of his standards.

Men in her life: There were romances with the US tennis ace Andy Roddick (left) and basketball giant Sasha Vujacic (right, to whom Sharapova was fleetingly engaged)

He would doubtless argue that his methodology paid dividends. Aged nine, Sharapova won an under-16s tournament, and the riches were on their way. Soon after she won Wimbledon, Yuri swapped their modest house in Florida for a mansion. The Honda was replaced with a limo.

With marketing executives drooling over her looks and talent, Sharapova appeared to be living the dream. She shopped with her mother on Fifth Avenue, featured on the cover of Vogue and was propositioned by the most eligible men. There were romances with the US tennis ace Andy Roddick and basketball giant Sasha Vujacic (to whom was fleetingly engaged) not to mention a reported fling with Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine who allegedly likened her silent, lifeless lovemaking to that of a ‘dead frog’. He later denied the remark, and Sharapova insisted they never slept together.

Child star: Sharapova (pictured in action in 2003) moved with her father to Florida aged six after he scraped enough money together to head to the US

Even as she was living out this fantasy existence, however, I glimpsed an uglier reality. The grasping Yuri, who assumed the role of his daughter’s business manager, milked his daughter for all her worth – once demanding a fee of £100,000 to fix me up for an interview.

And on the circuit there was much disquiet about his overbearing domination of her. Since her quiet, undemanding mother was his antithesis, no wonder their marriage fell apart.

Perhaps this constant pressure helps to explains why, as her fortunes rose, Sharapova changed; and not for the better. The obliging, starry-eyed waif became a sullen, self-absorbed – and loudly grunting – queen-bee who would curtly decline to sign autographs for fans at the courtside. There was, however, another crucial factor in Sharapova’s demise: her failure to come to terms with the superior strength and ability of Serena.

Though she won two of their first three matches, including that momentous 2004 final (and has earned almost twice as much money as Serena by dint of her commercial deals) she has since been routinely crushed by her American nemesis, failing to win any of their 18 subsequent encounters.

Williams seems to exact particular pleasure from beating her – perhaps because her former boyfriend, Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov, famously dumped her for Sharapova a few years ago.

The romantic tangle prompted a vicious volley of insults. A heartbroken Serena accused Dimitrov of having a ‘black heart’. Sharapova countered with the sardonic suggestion that Serena should talk about her own new relationship – with a married father-of-two who was then her coach.

Harsh words could not prevent Williams humiliating her on court, however. She handed out her most recent thrashing in January, in the quarter finals of the Australian Open – the tournament at which Sharapova failed the test.

And Williams, who described Sharapova as ‘courageous’ for the way she handled her announcement, couldn’t resist mischievously posting a picture of a taxi bearing an advert of herself – as it drove past a pharmacy.

For the fallen ice-queen this was the final indignity.