U.K. tennis player Laura Robson was "offered an unusual distraction" when she appeared on the world's first mirror tennis court created by adidas to promote its first collection of tennis attire by English fashion designer Stella McCartney, according to Liv Lee of the London DAILY MAIL. Robson was joined by world No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki, of Denmark, and No. 15 Maria Kirilenko, of Russia, at the media event, which was held Sunday in Melbourne where the Australian Open will be held (DAILY MAIL, 1/13). TENNIS GRANDSTAND's Romana Cvitkovic reported adidas' debut of McCartney's apparel line "will be accompanying the launch with a fan competition," which runs from Monday through Jan. 27 on adidas' Women's Instagram page. The competition asks fans to capture their adidas tennis look "for a chance to win some of the new kit." The debut of McCartney's collection is "only the first chapter" of the '13 adidas women's campaign to be launched in March (TENNIS GRANDSTAND, 1/11).
THE MONEY-DROP: In London, Kevin Mitchell wrote, "Women's tennis does glitz. It shimmers and shimmies, it sells beauty that has little to do with the loveliness of a drop shot but everything to do with the money-drop," and Robson "seems to have picked up on the concept as deftly as the sport's queen of glamour, Maria Sharapova, who has spent much of her time leading up to the start of the Australian Open pumping up her latest sponsored commodity, a sugary sweet for love-struck teens called Sugarpova" (GUARDIAN, 1/13).