Tennis superstar Maria Sharapova has decided not to change her surname to promote her line of sweets at a grand slam tennis tournament in New York because of red tape.
Sharapova, 26, had applied to change her name to Sugarpova at the Supreme Court of Florida but the process was too complicated, her agent Max Eisenbad said.
Sharapova said earlier that she would temporarily change her name for the duration of the upcoming U.S. Open tournament, where she planned to promote her brand of Sugarpova candies.
"Maria wanted to push her team to have some fun and tell the world about the Sugarpova [brand] in an unconventional way. The idea was to fill a glass truck with candy and drive around Miami," her agent was quoted as saying by Dozhd television's website.
But to change her name, Sharapova would then have had to change her passport. This would have complicate her plans to travel to Japan and China immediately after the tournament in New York, he said.
Even though Sharapova won't change her name to promote Sugarpova candies, which was launched worldwide earlier this year, the coverage alone has already boosted her popularity. On the day she announced the decision to change her name the number of subscribers to her Twitter blog exceeded half a million.
She is currently third in the world tennis rankings, and is listed by Forbes as the world's highest-earning female athlete.
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