NEW DELHI: After nudging out cricket from the front pages, Sania Mirza is elbowing India's top cricketers out of the endorsement sweepstakes. The tennis sensation has become India's joint secondhighest grosser among sports stars, in the same bracket as Rahul Dravid and second only to Sachin Tendulkar. She may have lost to Maria Sharapova at the US Open on Sunday, but Brand Sania is rocking India's advertising world. The Sania-Sharapova encounter also saw a 15% jump in ad rates for a tennis match telecast in India. Sania's endorsement fee is upwards of Rs 1.5 crore per endorsement per deal annually. That's second only to Sachin Tendulkar, who despite his bad form and injuries, commands Rs 6-7 crore per endorsement. A top ad executive told The Times of India, Before the US Open, Sania was well behind Dravid. But now, not only has she left cricketers like Sehwag behind, even India's cricket captain Sourav Ganguly seems to be paling in front of her. Concurrent with Sania's rise in the money list, there has been a slide in F-1 hope Narain Karthikeyan’s standing with advertisers. He once raked in a little less than Tendulkar, but he has since yielded ground to other sportstars.
Media planners said Sania's match with Sharapova had several last-minute advertisers like Tata Tea buying additional air-time on Ten Sports, the channel broadcasting the US Open. Ad rates for tennis matches typically hover between Rs 2,000-8,000 per 10 seconds; they were up by about 15% for Sunday's match. Rates perked up for this US Open thanks to Sania's presence this hasn't happened before for a tennis event in India, said Ajit Varghese, GM of Madison Media. In addition to the main sponsors Hero Honda and Pepsi, the US Open matches saw heavy advertising by IBM, Hewlett Packard, Maruti, Tata Tea, Yamaha and PCL.Sharmista Rijhwani, MD at Taj Televison India (which owns Ten Sports), said, The response from advertisers and viewers surpassed levels rarely seen outside cricket. Pecking order
Sachin Tendulkar
Sania Mirza and Rahul Dravid
Narain Karthikeyan
Virender Sehwag
Sourav Ganguly
.. that nose pin and earing style 
