Russian tennis sweetheart Maria Sharapova has just signed up with Sony Ericsson to become the company's first global brand ambassador.

The 21-year old Sharapova will be endorsing various consumer brand products from Sony Ericsson designed to engage the core target audience and to look into Sharapova's image outside the tennis court.

This deal with the female tennis superstar complements Sony Ericsson's prior global title sponsorship of the Women's Tennis Association worth US$ 88 million over a six year term.

Dee Dutta, Corporate Vice President and Head of Marketing at Sony Ericsson mentions that Sharapova's iconic status is the perfect image that the company wants to foster with its own line of products, which "prides itself on innovative and cool design with substance".

Dutta had high regard for Sharapova saying, "Our alignment with Maria’s global iconic status, combined with our brand expertise and innovative thinking aims to provide something new and something different to our customers around the world."

Sharapova herself was excited working with Sony Ericsson and will be enjoying how they will be exploring her image outside her sports profession.