"Maria Sharapova could've made $20 million more but we stayed true" - Russian's agent reveals taking inspiration from Tiger Woods to balance workload

Sports agent Max Eisenbud recently revealed that Tiger Wood's brand strategy shaped Maria Sharapova's. Eisenbud has notably worked with Sharapova since she was only 12 years old.

Eisenbud, also known for assisting the likes of Li Na and Emma Raducanu, made an appearance on the 'Served with Andy Roddick' podcast for an interview. In conversation with Roddick, Eisenbud revealed that he and Mark Steinberg, Tiger Woods' agent, worked at the same office at IMG.

Eisenbud learned from Steinburg how Woods managed his commercial commitments while not sacrificing his professional duties. According to him, Tiger Woods devoted only three weeks in a year to his endorsement commitments.

"Mark Steinberg was a colleague of mine who worked on the 13th floor, I spent a lot of time with him to figure out how does Tiger do it, you know, Tiger had a lot of deals. The key is how do you maximize your earnings but still win. What he'd like to do is take weeks of the year to do his shoots, so what Tiger would do is take three weeks to do five shoots a week in those weeks," Eisenbud said.

Eisenbud then applied similar rules to Maria Sharapova's calendar and concluded she had only 16 days to shoot for brands without compromising on her schedule, even losing out on a lot of money in the process.

"Basically, we figured out that we have sixteen days a year that would not interrupt her becoming a great tennis player. She could've made $20 million more if we added four or five days more, but we stayed true," Eisenbud added.

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"Credit to Maria Sharapova's father Yuri because he could've easily said, 'I want more!'" - Max Eisenbud

Maria Sharapova with her father Yuri after winning the Wimbledon ladies singles title in 2004.

During the same episode of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast, Max Eisenbud claimed that Maria Sharapova had signed numerous commitments after her Wimbledon triumph in 2004. At the same time, she also kept winning titles on the court.

"I think you'll see after she [Maria Sharapova] won, she had crazy amount of deals but she kept winning. She won the [Year-end] championships that year [2004, she was Top 5, she won her second Grand Slam at the US Open [2006]," Eisenbud said.

Eisenbud further lauded Sharapova's father Yuri for getting on board with the 16-day strategy.

"So, that strategy, credit to Yuri because he could've easily said, 'I want more!', credit to Maria buying in. So that 16 days, I brought to Emma and I brought Li Na," he added.