Maria Sharapova brings game to area

I n a sense, Maria Sharapova represents everything that Billie Jean King has fought so hard for over the past 30 years.
At 17, she quickly has become the face of women's tennis, replacing Venus and Serena Williams as the most popular draw on the Women's Tennis Association tour, which makes a weeklong stop in Villanova, Pa., next week for the $585,000 Advanta Championships.

Maria is young and beautiful , but as she showed by becoming the first Russian to win Wimbledon this year, she also is extremely talented. And because of that she is beginning to distance herself from comparisons to Russian heartthrob Anna Kournikova.

A year ago, Maria could have slid in and out of Villanova's Pavilion unnoticed. But, since winning Wimbledon, she has become tennis' hottest attraction. Unlike Kournikova, who never won a major tournament, Sharapova is looking for her fifth WTA victory of 2004.

We wish you a victory!