Molto Maria

(NEW YORK) The U.S. Open starts on Monday, and the most famous tennis demi-gods are lovingly invading our town by checking into hotel rooms, dining nightly at Nobu and hosting plenty of events. It's odd, then, that arguably the most famous female athlete on the planet Maria Sharapova arrived in New York looking better than ever--even without an upcoming tournament, thanks to her nagging shoulder injury. "It's difficult for me," she said last night at the launch at Canon PowerShot Diamond Collection at South Street Seaport. "I'm not the kind of person who sits around and watches TV. I'm an Energizer bunny! It's difficult to be so close to the action and not be able to participate. But I'm keeping busy until I hit a wall, get 12 hours of sleep and then wake up and do it all over again."

When Maria heads to New York, the fashion industry usually takes advantage. The Russian star is busy with photo shoots, editor meetings (you can guess the publication), interviews and shopping expeditions, all of which she masters wearing five-inch heels. "I'm usually terrible with sky-high shoes, but I'm surviving these with flying colors," smiled Sharapova, who will hit up the Vera Wang show during Fashion Week. "And I was so excited to wear this dress, and fit the sample size to do it."

The highlight of the night was the debut of tennis star's new Canon commercials, co-starring her beloved Pomeranian. "I still get excited to see myself on TV," she admitted. "But, I get sick of watching myself a little bit." As for Dolce? "At this point, he deserves his own agent and manager!"
VALENTINE UHOVSKI