HOW SHE GOT TO NO.1

摘要

Maria sharapova fibs. "i'm just a normal girl," she gig-gles. Sharapova, 18, the blond, leggy, Russia-born, Florida-raised tennis pinup is the No. 1-ranked player in the world heading into next week's U.S. Open. Sure, like a normal girl, Sharapova is a bit of a mall rat. But a normal girl doesn't morph into the highest-paid female athlete on the planet in one year. She doesn't have a corporate sponsor like Motorola throw her 18th-birthday party at a swank Manhattan nightclub, pack it with 500 people and hire Maroon 5 to rock out. And a normal girl certainly doesn't walk the tightrope between sports and sex, sparking a mini-furor at a Toronto tourney because her two stadium banners were a tad too revealing.