Tennis Star Maria Sharapova Launches Candy Line

Tennis pro Maria Sharapova is going into the candy business.

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The four-time Grand Slam title winner launched her Sugarpova brand of 12 types of sweets on Monday. Among the candies are a lips-shaped sweet dubbed Flirty, a bear-shaped treat called Cheeky and a tennis ball-shaped one named Sporty, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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A portion of the sales will benefit the Maria Sharapova Foundation, which aims to help students in areas of Belarus that were affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown.

Sharapova, 25, is set to officially launch the new line at an event to be held at Henri Bendel on 5th Avenue in New York. She also is scheduled to appear on NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

At this year's French Open, which Sharapova won, she called Sugarpova "the most exciting project that I've ever done ... because it's my own business, my own investment, my own money."

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Sharapova was recently named by Forbes as the highest-paid female athlete in the world for an eighth consecutive year, raking in $27.1 million over the past 12 months.

Sharapova, who won a silver medal at the recent London Olympics, is ranked third heading into the U.S. Open, which starts next week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.