By Sarah Alvanipour
Photo by AP

Click here to see a clip of Sharapova's appearance on The Late Show.

Maria Sharapova made a guest appearance on CBS’ The Late Show with David Letterman last night, just days after she celebrated her 21st birthday on April 19.

Sharapova spent her time on late night television trading quips with the host, who was quite taken aback by the leggy Russian, who appeared in a black mini tulip skirt and asymmetrically ruffled white blouse.

“I mean this seriously: wow,” Letterman joked as Sharapova took her seat.

Letterman wished Sharapova a happy birthday before she reciprocated the gesture. The famous gap-toothed host, who recently turned 61, presented Sharapova with a gift, a can of tennis balls.

“That’s just what I don’t have,” she joked.

The real gift was a new watch from her sponsor, Tag Heuer, who is also throwing her a birthday bash in New York City tonight. She previously held a private family celebration on her actual birthday.

For her 18th birthday, then-sponsor Motorola hosted a party at club Hiro in NYC, where guests like Lindsay Lohan stopped by to wish the former Wimbledon champion birthday greetings and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine serenaded the crowd.

Talk then shifted to tennis, with Letterman asking why anyone bothered to play on clay.

“I ask the same question,” Sharapova, whose least favorite surface is the dirt, replied. But she did underline the importance of the clay court season on the tennis calendar noting that the French Open is a major upcoming tournament and attempted to explain why some players have trouble playing on red stuff.
 
“When I was first a junior, I played a lot of tournaments on clay, but when you start playing ITF tournaments and challengers and money tournaments, you start playing more on hard courts cause a lot of those courts are in the States. There are barely any clay courts in the States. A lot of those are in Europe. That is why the Europeans are so good on clay courts.”

Sharapova, who previously described her footing on clay as being like “a cow on ice,” now believes that she is “getting better,” less like a cow and more like “Bambi.”

She also talked about representing Russia at the Olympics in Beijing.

“It’s been a dream of mine,” she said.

The world No. 3 then headed out to the street, where a makeshift court was assembled, to hit a few serves to Letterman and the previous guest, comedian/actor Billy Crystal, neither of whom successfully returned a serve. Crystal, who recently dabbled in pro baseball, playing for his beloved Yankees in a spring training exhibition against the Pittsburgh Pirates, then tossed the racket in favor a baseball mitt. He managed to catch one serve. 

Sharapova’s clay court season has already begun. She won her first event clay event at Amelia Island earlier this month and made the quarterfinals of Charleston last week before falling to eventual winner, Serena Williams. Her next tournament will be Rome in three weeks time.