Mobile gaming company I-play announced it has signed Wimbledon tennis champ Maria Sharapova to front a new mobile game.

I-play Maria Sharapova Tennis joins other I-play mobile games based on famous sports personalities, including Colin McRae Rally 2005; Nate Adams Freestyle Motocross and Electronic Arts Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005

The company says that its branded mobile games are "intuitive and fun for a mass-market" mobile audience.

"As part of our drive to create mobile games for everyone, we are very pleased to bring an athlete of huge, global appeal like Maria Sharapova to mobile gaming. We are very much looking forward to working with our distribution partners as well as other Maria Sharapova marketing partners to bring it to as wide an audience as possible," says Paul Maglione, senior vice president, publishing and marketing, I-play.

"Tennis is a sport that everyone should be able to enjoy across any format, and by using my name in a mobile gaming context, I hope that tennis fans will be able to share my passion, whatever the weather or conditions of play," says Sharapova.

The I-play service will be available to North American mobile consumers in summer 2005. I-play was unable to comment on what mobile services will distribute the I-play Maria Sharapova Tennis mobile game. IMG, Sharapova's management firm, brokered the deal.

"I've been waiting to see what company IMG would broker a deal with Maria. Many of you who saw last year's Wimbledon may remember the poignant media coverage focusing in on her using her cell phone at the end of the game to call her family in the crowd. I-play will be a fun company for her to promote. Global mobile gaming is hot and due to grow to $6 billion Euro by 2006," says Joyce Schwarz, author and iMedia contributor.