Photos © Mark Dadswell/Getty Images

By Kamakshi Tandon

MELBOURNE, Australia—The two most marketable players in women’ tennis these days will meet in the Australian Open final on Saturday. 

Both are telegenic 20-year-olds with big games and bright futures, but it’s the contrasts between them that capture attention.

Maria Sharapova is a two-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 who’s parlayed her success and tall blonde panache into big business, earning between $26-$28 million from endorsement deals with companies including Canon, Nike, PepsiCo, Land Rover, Tag Heuer, Prince and a just-signed agreement with Sony Ericsson, which also sponsors the WTA Tour.

Ana Ivanovic is a much more recent phenomenon, bursting into prominence last spring by reaching the French Open final and Wimbledon semifinals. She’ll rise to No. 2 in the world after her performances this week, and her cherub dark-haired charm has boosted her profile even faster.

Though she’s not yet in Sharapova’s league when it comes to off-court earnings – who is, apart from Roger Federer? – Ivanovic had made a good start, banking about $3-$5 million a year from endorsements with adidas, Yonex, Verano Motors in Serbia and Juice Plus (a company owned by her Swiss manager).

Their paths to the final have also been different, with the challenger taking a much more precarious path than the established champ.

Ivanovic lost the first eight games against Daniela Hantuchova in the semifinals before clawing her way back to win a tough third-set battle 0-6, 6-3, 6-4. (“It’s not over yet,” Sharapova commented when Ivanovic was down 6-0, 2-1.)

Sharapova went the opposite route, starting strongly with a 5-0 lead and overcoming a slight hiccup on the way to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over a struggling Jankovic.

She has been in three previous Grand Slam finals, but each time her opponents – Henin and Serena Williams twice – were both older and more accomplished. This match will mark the first time she’ll walk on court as the veteran with the more impressive resume.

It’ll be a new experience, but Sharapova isn't not sure how it’ll feel. “It's hard to say until I actually go out there,” she said. “I hope that I can perform as well as I have throughout the tournament here.”

She has every reason to feel confident. Her powerful serve has clicked back into place after a long struggle with a shoulder injury last year, and even her most ambitious shots have been consistently finding their spots this fortnight.

Getting mauled in the final by Serena last year set in motion a difficult year for Sharapova, who won only one title all season.

The turnaround began at the Sony Ericsson WTA year-end championships in Madrid, where Sharapova reached the final and gave Henin a three-hour, three-set battle despite having hardly any preparation before the event. A few weeks of solid hitting during the off-season had her feeling like her old self, but with renewed enthusiasm for the game.

“It was a great learning experience,” she said of her tough 2007. “think it made me stronger because I didn't give up.

”When I did have the opportunity to train and wake up in the morning feeling really good with my body and my shoulder, I was just so excited about going on the court.

“You sometimes forget when you're healthy how fortunate you are to actually be healthy – because when you're not, you're sitting at home and it's a feeling like something is limiting you to doing what you actually love to do. It's a terrible feeling, there's no doubt about it. Every athlete goes through it. You just realize how lucky you are. You put so many things into perspective.”

As Sharapova settles down to her match-eve routine of watching a movie on Friday night, Ivanovic will be trying to avoid the thoughts that filled her mind before her previous Slam final. “During the whole tournament, I really took it match by match and really tried to enjoy each match separately,” she said. “Then in the final, I was thinking more,’ Oh, my God, maybe I can win a Grand Slam.’ I start thinking more emotionally. It was very overwhelming.”

So nervous she could barely throw the ball to serve at the beginning of the match, she made no impression in the match – a disappointing end to an otherwise uplifting tournament. Since then, she’s looked forward to getting another chance – but how will she respond now that she has one?

“That’s something I definitely have to learn from and this time hopefully deal with it better,” she said.

She’s zeroed in on something specific to guard against, which should help her focus. “Everyone gets in [their] own way a little bit nervous and tight. I tend to stop moving,” she observed. “Just very important for me to get that good rhythm from beginning and to have a good warmup, to get a little bit sweating before walking on the court. That's something I find works for me to help me prevent getting really nervous.”

Ivanovic is drawing confidence from the fact that she’s fitter than she’s ever been, and is armed with a new racquet she feels has improved her backhand. “Since I change racquets, I feel my backhand improved a lot. I got much more work on the ball,” she said. “It obviously gives me a lot of confidence because I always had quite a good forehand, but now I feel also very comfortable on that backhand side.”

When making the switch to a Yonex racquet, Ivanovic tested dozens of frames in Madrid and finally settled on a stiffer frame and different stringing pattern from her previous stick.

But there may still be some doubts in her mind stemming from the nervous start she made in her previous match, which was compounded by Hantuchova’s stellar play. On the other hand, being able to recover and come through the match will have boosted her self-belief immensely. The congenial Ivanovic pumped her fist repeatedly as she battled back, even showing a faint hint of a darker side as she occasionally celebrated Hantuchova’s errors during the third set. It was an important show of mental toughness ahead of a meeting with one of the fiercest competitors in the women’s game.

The match also gave Ivanovic her first taste of controversy after Hantuchova objected to the squeaking of Ivanovic’s shoes as the Serb prepared to return serve. “Yeah, that's ridiculous, I think,” said Hantuchova. “I was really surprised with that. I think it's unfair. It's a distraction to the server. We played before and she never did it.”

Ivanovic denied she had deliberately been making noise and said she had never received a similar complaint. “If you see other matches I was doing exactly the same thing... I just tried to move my feet, to return the ball, so it really was not intentional,” she said.

“I think since I improve my movement – I don't think I was moving as much before, so maybe I didn't produce so much squeaking,” she added wryly.

Sharapova has also had her own niggling controversies to deal with, particularly her father Yuri’s throat-slashing gesture in the stands after her match against Henin. She too has tried to deflect questions about the incident with humor, largely successfully, but – like ‘bannanagate’ at the 2006 US Open – another episode could partly oveshadow her on-court performances once again. The Friday edition of the Melbourne Age contained an account of an unflattering incident between a reporter and Sharapova’s entourage.

Both players will hope the story of the final will be the quality of their play, and the winner will gain a significant foothold in what promises to be a crowded year at the top of women’s tennis. There's also the opportunity to fill the role of the sport’s publicity darling, which requires a combination of results and magnetism.

Both players have been featured in a number of non-tennis publications – Vogue being a prominent example – and are dabbling in television. Sharapova is slated to be executive producer for a tennis-themed drama on the US CW network, while Ivanovic is exploring a (non-singing) appearance in the Eurovision song contest when it takes place in Serbia this spring. Both have also started to be active in charity work, taking on roles as UNICEF ambassadors.

Could we ask for any more from this final? Just one thing – a good match.