Maria Sharapova mainly makes money off the court. Photo: Live Tennis Guide

Over the past 10 years, Maria Sharapova has always been considered a winner both on and off the tennis court. She is famous for her intelligence, attractive appearance and outstanding achievements. The Sharapova brand has helped “Russian Doll” earn $285 million throughout her career, and maintained Forbes’ position as the world’s highest-paid female athlete for the past 11 years.

However, admitting to testing positive for a banned substance at this week’s Australian Open could cause Sharapova serious damage. Swiss watch company – Tag Heuer first cooperated with Sharapova in August 2004 right after she won at Wimbledon. Tag is negotiating a contract extension with Sharapova, which expired at the end of last year. But yesterday, they decided to stop.

Sharapova also signed a 3-year contract with Porsche in 2013. But the car company also had to say goodbye to the world’s No. 7 female tennis player, choosing to “postpone planned activities” with Sharapova “until information was released.” details are announced and we can carefully analyze the situation.” The contract signed with Nike in 2010 worth 70 million USD for 8 years was also announced to be suspended “while the investigation is underway”.

Sharapova caused a stir in 2004 when she won the Wimbledon championship. At that time, the only two sponsorship contracts she had were Nike and Prince Sports. But things changed very quickly after that. Female athletes have become the target of many brands, such as: Tag Heuer, Canon, Motorola, Colgate-Palmolive and many other companies. Just 12 months after winning the trophy, she pocketed 18 million USD thanks to prize money and advertising contracts and event attendance. After that, she also signed contracts with Land Rover, PepsiCo and Sony.

Sharapova can earn $500,000 for appearing in an event. She even has contracts that other female athletes never get, like being paid millions of dollars to put her name on an apartment building in India. For many years, the shoes she wore became the best-selling item at Cole Haan (a brand formerly owned by Nike). She also sold her memoirs for millions of dollars.

In total, during her career, Sharapova earned $37 million in prize money. This amount of money is insignificant compared to what she receives off the field. June 2014 to June 2015 was Sharapova’s best financial year. She earned a total of 29.7 million USD, of which 23 million USD was from outside activities.

Forbes calculates her income from sponsors, events and copyrights to be nearly 250 million USD, since playing professionally in 2001. And if including bonuses, this number is 285 million USD.

Sharapova’s other sponsors are Avon, Evian and Head. Last year, she also signed a contract with American Express to advertise for this card company during the following two US Open seasons.

Sharapova is also preparing to expand production for her own company – Sugarpova, founded in 2012. The company initially only sold marshmallows and this year will sell more chocolate, then expand to home furnishings and pajamas. Sugarpova is profitable, but it’s all used for reinvestment.

Forbes estimates that no athlete is more attractive than Sharapova to receive these sponsorships. Research firm Repucom specializes in tracking people’s attitudes toward famous people according to 7 criteria. Among them, Sharapova always ranks first in the group of female athletes. With the criterion of “trustworthiness”, she is on par with American baseball legend – Derek Jeter. But now, with the scandal of using banned substances, all of Sharapova’s scores will probably go downhill.