CNN's Kate Giles reports on the lucrative sports deals that tennis players have and how valuable they are to their sponsors. Some top players earn more money off the court than on the court (even though their earnings from playing tournaments are enormous).

Look at our favorite Maria Sharapova as an example: the Russian has a $65 million deal with Nike (don’t forget ALL the other sponsors she has) and her total career prize money is about $13 million which includes three Grand Slam titles. What makes tennis players so interesting to sports brands is the fact that they are not famous only within the niche of tennis but their celebrity status spreads much further.

The second part of the video is even more interesting. It shows how tennis and fashion have always complemented each other and it takes us 120 years back. The TV presenter tries on one of the women's tennis outfits from the past. Remember that we discussed how it would be a cool statement to introduce some of those fashion elements from history to the present (it was in our article called "Wimbledon evolution in video, history photos"). It took Kate half an hour to put the complete 11-piece outfit on! However, I’m still for bringing back some details from the past. (source: CNN’s Open Court)

Maria Sharapova will play doubles only for the third time since 2005 and her new partner will be Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium. The two will team up at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford which starts July 26.

Last two doubles matches Sharapova played were at the 2009 Indian Wells with Elena Vesnina and at the 2005 Birmingham with Maria Kirilenko.

Sharapova has won three doubles titles in her career: the 2004 Birmingham with Maria Kirilenko, and Tokyo and Luxembourgh in 2003 with Tamarine Tanasugarn. Wickmayer still has no Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles titles. As for their ranking, Sharapova is currently unranked in doubles, while Wickmayer is ranked 131st. (photos: Stephane Martinache, © Neal Trousdale)

Maria Sharapova and her boyfriend Sasha Vujacic had a vacation in a small town of Udine, Italy. They attended the wedding of Sasha’s friend and were also spotted walking the streets of the town in northeastern Italy.

The world No.15 Sharapova is back to work now:

Just had an amazing vacation in Italy, now I am back on the hard courts and ready to work. Changing things up a little this year and will stay in Europe to start my training and my next tournament will be at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford at the end of the month.

Sasha started his professional basketball career playing for Snaidero Udine. (source: Great Tennis Photos)

Dear Readers, here's a guest post from sportswriter and tennis fan David Fearnhead voicing his discontent with Maria Sharapova's screaming. Do you share his opinion?

Buried somewhere in the tennis rule book is an article on hinderance. It states that "If a player is hindered by an opponent then he or she wins the point, unless it's unintentional, in which case the point is replayed." Much of the implementation of this law is down to the umpire. There are obvious cases where this has been used. Remember the beads of Venus Williams’ hair falling out and spraying all over the court during the ’99 Australian Open, or more recently Elena Dementieva’s troublesome hat.

However an old adversary of the Women’s game is rearing its ugly head once more – grunting. I agree with Nick Bollettieri’s assertion that when you’re putting all into hitting the ball as hard as you can you are going to make some noise as you exhale, but there is a world of difference from these breathy strains and the outright screaming of some players.

Nobody expects players to remain completely silent. There should, however, be limits. Exhibit A for the prosecution would be the clash between the talented Czech player Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova and Maria Sharapova at this year’s Wimbledon. This third round match-up had everything for a thrilling encounter. Sharapova was finally coming back into form and Zahlavova-Strycova had just come through a three-setter in which she ousted the number 24 seed Daniela Hantuchova.

Sharapova took it in two sets, edging the first 7-5 followed by a more comfortable 6-3 in the second. However this does not tell the full story of the match. Sure at times it seemed like hawkeye was deliberately favouring Sharapova, and you have to applaud the Russian’s ability to read the lines and know when to challenge, but one niggling doubt over the legitimacy of that victory remains. On that afternoon number one court echoed to the constant screams of the 16th seed. These were not the strains of player trying to put every ounce of herself into every strike, but a seemingly deliberate attempt to destabilize her opponent. Read more »

Wimbledon may have strict dress code but there still is enough space for players and their brands to experiment and bring something new and exciting. Let's see how successful they've been this year.

Let's start with Venus and Serena Williams. We've already paid close attention to both Venus' Eleven dress and Serena's Nike dress, but it's worth mentioning them again – Venus was definitely unique with fringes all over the bottom part of the dress, while Serena wore a more classic design inspired by strawberries and cream and a cute narrow headband. Just to use the opportunity to mention that the sisters, twice defending champions, lost in doubles quarterfinals today to Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Chinese brand ANTA and Jelena Jankovic were simple and classy at this year's Wimbledon. JJ also sported a customized racquet bag and was fully equipped for the greatest Grand Slam.

Once my favorite tennis fashion designer Stella McCartney seems to be lacking inspiration as Caroline Wozniacki has been wearing pretty much the same dress for months. Now I can't blame her, why bother when you're going to lose your match in 46 minutes (sorry, Caro). Talking about Stella, we have to mention Maria Kirilenko who looks awesome even in the simple adidas BARRICADE top and skort. Read more »