Maria Sharapova, former world tennis number one, announced last week her plans to change her surname to ‘Sugarpova’ for the duration of the tennis Grand Slam, the US Open, that started last Monday.

The tennis player had asked about changing her name through Florida’s Supreme Court, while the US Open takes place, before reverting back after the tournament. A few days later, she eventually decided against the move.

The surprising marketing move was aimed at promoting Sharapova’s own brand of candy, launched in 2012 and founded with her own money. A portion of every purchase goes to support the Maria Sharapova foundation. The sweets are sold in Selfridges in the UK, with names such as Quirky, Cheeky and Flirty.

Even if the name change had been legally approved, the Russian tennis star would have likely also needed the permission of the Grand Slam committee, due to the implications in stadium announcements, referees and even the scorecards referring to her as “Miss Sugarpova”. It was Sharapova’s agent, Max Eisenbud, who announced that the name change would finally not happen. “We would have to change all her identification; she has to travel to Japan and China right after the tournament, and it was going to be very difficult,” he said. Many also argue that this name change would have got her in trouble with her sponsors, including Nike, Head, Samsung Electronics, Tag Heuer, Porsche and Evian.  

It seems, however, that Sharapova’s marketing objective was achieved. How did you find out that the athlete had her own brand of confectionary? It was probably this week after all the media attention the name change got! She didn’t even need to make it happen, just by announcing her intention the media gave her in just one week the coverage that her candy brand hadn’t garnered in a whole year.

It would not have been the first time that an athlete changed his or her legal name. Not even for marketing purposes. In 2005, British snooker player Jimmy White changed his name to James Brown, as part of a sponsorship deal with HP Sauce.