Sania loses to Serena, but earns endorsement offers

Sania Mirza may not have won the match with Serena Wiliams at the Australian Open on Friday, but once back she is sure going to win a lot product endorsements.

Post her success at the Australian Open, advertisers are now queing up at Mahesh Bhupathy-managed Globo Media Solutions to sign on the rising tennis star.

She will now be in the league of cricket stars such as Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan who command a price tag of Rs 50 lakh for endorsements.

Anirban Das Blah, vice president-sales and marketing, Globo Media Solutions, said, "In the last three-four days, we have been flooded with calls from companies asking for Sania to be their brand ambassador."

He said that clients, whom the company had approached six months back to sign on Sania, were now regretting at the missed opportunity. She is being now offered six to eight times of what she asked six months ago, her media manager revealed.

According to Blah, Sania is an icon for the modern Indian young woman Without taking names, Blah said that a leading sports company, women's apparel, mobile handset and a FMCG's range of personal care products for women are eyeing Sania as their brand promoter.

Sania is currently endorsing Atlas Cycles, Tata Tea and GVK Industries. Blah added that despite her success at the Grand Slam, they are not looking at many endorsements that will hamper her practise.

Once she breaks into the top 20, they would then add some more brands, he added. Globo Media Solutions is Mahesh Bhupathy's events & sports management company.

The company is into facilitating endorsement deals and conceptualising and executing events. Its international and domestic clients include Anna Kournikova, Saif Ali Khan, ICICI Bank, Deutsche Bank and Seagram India.