Sania's endorsement rules - six products in 30 days

India's rising tennis star Sania Mirza will not do any commercials that portray her as a "glamorous object" and endorse only six products at a time, for which 30 days in a year have been earmarked.

Mahesh Bhupathi, who owns globosport, the company that manages Sania, has himself decided on the ceiling for the world's 34th ranked player.

"If we wanted, Sania could do 10 endorsements like the cricketers. She could be doing 75 days of endorsements work like the cricketers," said globosport vice-president Anirban Das Blah.

Sania, who became the first Indian woman to enter the fourth round of the US Open recently, is currently endorsing five products.

"Everyone knows that we are going to announce a (new) deal in the next two-three weeks. Once that is done, we will have to drop old endorsements for her to sign on more endorsements," said Blah.

"We have always said we will do maybe six at a time, not more," he emphasised.

Blah said that Sania, who plays in the WTA Sunfeast Open at Kolkata starting on Monday, would not appear in commercials as a glamorous object.

"We are not going to work with brands that interfere with her tennis, those who (want to) treat her as a glamorous object rather than a tennis player, that make demands on her time at the cost of her tennis, especially at this stage."

He said that his company would not immediately try to cash in on Sania's soaring popularity.

"Sania is not going to be a cricketer -- this is tennis. If you are a top tennis player you earn so much prize money that you don't have to worry so much about endorsements."

"(Suppose) Sachin Tendulkar is earning Rs. 1 crore (Rs.10 million) from the BCCI and Rs.30 crores (Rs.300 million) from endorsements, so obviously, his primary business is endorsements. That's not true of tennis."

Blah disclosed that the company's main focus as of now would be Sania's tennis.

"We are going to focus on tennis. Yes, today maybe because she is doing a few endorsements, her value has skyrocketed. I know the prices that I am being offered today in the marketplace are as high or higher than what (Rahul) Dravid gets offered," he said.

The company signed Sania just before she won the junior Wimbledon doubles along with Alisa Klyebanova of Russia in July 2003.

"Back then we didn't view we would make any money. We committed to support her up to Rs. 40 lakhs (Rs. 4 million) a year. It was to be adjusted against the funds that came in from GVK Industries (Sania's current sponsor) or whatever."

Anirban said that Sania had such potential that globosport had to help her fulfil it. "Mahesh was really clear about that. Fundamentally, that cannot change for us as a company. We make enough money as an organisation with our Bollywood business, with all other endorsements, in-field placements, event management."