Big Apple Impressions

Nobody looks exactly like maria sharapova, but look-alikes of the lanky Russian tennis star apparently are close enough to pique the interest of Big Apple fans.

When Canon USA set a team of 20 faux Sharapovas loose on Manhattan streets, just as the real Sharapova was struggling to an early exit during the recent U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in nearby Flushing, the results spoke for themselves.

Prowling the streets in four teams, the “Marias” posed for 7,000 photo ops in three days — and twice that number of fans retrieved shots from a special e-mail site to enter a sweepstakes to see the real Maria play anywhere in the world.

It all started with a fashion show featuring the faux Marias in midtown Manhattan's Greeley Square, where they began distributing the first of 75,000 hand-held fans they gave out that week.

The Canon-branded fans were emblazoned with their images and by the time WCBS, WNBC, WWOR, WPIX and ESPN all ran segments about the promotion, the Sharapova impersonators racked up an estimated 63 million media impressions.

Some of those attending the Greeley Square event and encountering the Marias on the street even noticed the real object of Canon's promotion: its new line of PowerShot cameras being brandished by those leggy look-alikes.