Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications has announced today that it has signed an exclusive four year sponsorship agreement with female tennis player, Maria Sharapova, to become the company's first global brand ambassador.

The stunning and talented Russian, who turns 21 in April this year, will undertake a series of innovative new consumer brand campaigns specifically designed to engage Sony Ericsson's core target audiences and to utilise Maria away from the tennis court.

Maria will also be working with Sony Ericsson's design team on a range of products and accessories.

The off-season for you, what's important about it when you have a tournament first up?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Uhm, most importantly it's about, you know, in the beginning of it, figuring out where you feel you need to work on, you know, what's most important to you. I mean, when you say "off-season," it's only about four to five, six weeks max of good training, depending on how good you do at the end of the year. So it depends on how long you take off.

You know, you really just try to focus on the things you want to work on, you know, put that effort into those weeks because hopefully that will be, you know, your training setup for about six months.

The draw for the 1st Grand Slam of the year at the Australian Open has been released and Maria is seeded 5 and will face Jelena Kostanic Tosic of Croatia in the 1st round.  Maria has played Kostanic Tosic twice before and leads the series 2-0, they actually met here 2 years ago in the 3rd round and Maria won 6-0 6-1.  Maria will play this match on either Monday or Tuesday.

Maria could face Lindsay Davenport of the United States in the 2nd round who is on a comeback after having a baby, Maria leads the series 4-1.  The 1st seed Maria can meet is #32 seed Julia Vakulenko of the Ukraine in the 3rd round.  Maria is seeded to meet #11 seed Elena Dementieva of Russia in the 4th round and top seed Justine Henin of Belgium in the quarters.

A relaxed Maria Sharapova practised at a deserted Rod Laver Arena today, concentrating on her powerful serve and her return.

The Russian was chatty as she prepared for next week’s Australian Open, laughing with her hitting partner and coach.

Sharapova did not seem phased by the hot sun pouring through the open roof at Rod Laver, nor jetlag, having only arrived in Melbourne this morning after playing in a tournament in Hong Kong.

Maria lost the final in Hong Kong to #4 seed Venus Williams of the United States by the score of 4-6 3-6 in 80 minutes in sweltering heat at Victoria Park.

Maria talking about the match: "When your opponent is serving big and serving consistently well you really have to take your chances on opportunities you have on second serves which I think I did a poor job on.  When I did get those opportunities on second serve I made errors or gave her an easy ball. Other than that I thought that I did a good job on my serve when she was trying to attack, I thought I did a good job at handling that.