VOGUE magazine has long had a love affair with tennis. See the archives here, including a delightful photo of Monica Seles from its April 2009 issue that I can't stop staring at now. And consider this wonderful new tie-in: The magazine, with its heralded September issue incoming, commissioned 13 artists and brands to fashion custom tennis balls for this year's U.S. Open. Included are Spin favorites such as Warby Parker, Rag & Bone, and Diane von Furstenberg. Maria Sharapova also designs one, with her trademark lips logo on it and a few Sugarpova gummy balls sufficiently strewn beside it as if her mother ball has spawned three ballettes.
Speaking of Sharapova, she finds herself on the August 17-23 cover of <strong><em>Hamptons</em> magazine</strong>, too. The questions put to her and her own comments indicate that the shoot happened before the Olympics, which makes sense considering this wham-bam WTA schedule. She also discusses her impending nuptial with Sasha Vujacic in Istanbul, Turkey. And thus the marketing juggernaut personified that she is roars on. Here's a <strong>behind-the-scenes clip</strong> from the magazine shoot featuring the golden (er, silver) girl.
SIDE LINE: Former ATP fixture and current Coco Vandeweghe coach Jan-Michael Gambill recently hobnobbed in St. Tropez with a famous crew including Elton John and his husband David Furnish. Pics or it didn't happen? **Okay, here.** The Spin just hopes that Gambill's young charge, Coco, who turns 21 this December, knows who Elton John is.
—Jonathan Scott (**@jonscott9**)