NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Up-and-coming tennis star Maria Sharapova is beautiful and well spoken.

Sharapova's only U.S. TV ad is for a little-known product called SpeedMinton.

And unlike Anna Kournikova, another blonde Russian player to whom she is often compared, she plays winning tennis.

But don't expect the 17-year old Sharapova, who moved to the United States from Siberia 10 years ago, to be all over the airways hawking clothing, consumer products or even tennis equipment any time soon.

Even though she became the third-youngest Wimbledon women's champion Saturday with her stunning 6-1, 6-4 win over Serena Williams, it probably doesn't make a lot of business sense for either Sharapova or potential sponsors to sign a bunch of deals right now.

That doesn't mean there's not a lot of interest in Sharapova from potential sponsors.

"She has great marketing potential. She has the looks of Kournikova, but the game will keep her in the public eye," said Jeff Chown, managing director of The Marketing Arm, which negotiates with athletes and other celebrities on behalf of advertisers.

But so far, Sharapova has only a handful of endorsement deals -- Nike, of course, in a relatively modest deal; Prince, her racketmaker in a five-year deal reportedly worth $750,000; NEC computers, for which she appears in a Japanese commercial; and Speedminton, a combination of tennis, badminton and racquetball.

Even Jaden Agassi, the 2-1/2 year old son of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, has a bigger endorsement career right now. (Although, truth be told, it's a 5-year old actor playing Jaden in the spot now airing for Genworth Financial.)

One member of Sharapova's business team told me Friday that there were other major companies interested in signing her, even before her success at Wimbledon. She's turned down most of the offers to this point, he said, to concentrate on her tennis game.

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"I'm sure there will be a lot more now, but she's always been very patient and selective," said the source, who spoke on a not-for-attribution basis.

As easy as it is to see potential at this point, it's probably not quite the right time for either the sponsors or the budding star to make long-term commitments.

Anna, the reigning champ

For Sharapova, any deal she signs now would probably be at a steep discount to the money she'll be able to command in a few years if she continues to win on the court. And considering that she signed with the IMG sports agency before she was even a teenager, she's obviously someone who has been planning for future success from a very early age.

From a sponsor's perspective, cutting a deal now would be for her potential, not her current fame, which is still pretty modest. A survey done in April by Marketing Evaluations Inc., the research firm that does the Q ratings used by advertisers to judge an endorser's appeal, found that only 23 percent of sports fans knew who she was.

Even with the prestige of Wimbledon, that number is not going to shoot up overnight. Only about 3 U.S. million homes are likely to have seen her finals match Saturday morning, early on a holiday weekend.

"If a brand is going to use her right now, most people won't know who she is," said Chown. "It become ineffective spending. Even if you can get her cheap, there's not a lot of value."

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Chown said there's still more interest among advertisers in signing Kournikova, despite the fact that her competitive tennis career is somewhere between on hold and over right now, at age 23.

"I don't think that the consumers who are being targeted by the brands using Anna Kournikova care much about her tennis success or failure," said Chown. "She's transcended the sport and made herself into a sex symbol."

Sharapova has done her best to avoid that kind of image, trying to steer any media questions about her looks or her social life back to a discussion of tennis.

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She rose into the top 10 of players at a very young age, winning three singles tournaments. She made it to the quarterfinals at the French Open two weeks before Wimbledon. Kournikova's next singles championship, on the other hand, would be her first.

Some day, Sharapova's on-court success -- and her own good looks -- could make people forget Kournikova. But for advertisers, that day isn't here yet.