Meet Max Eisenbud, the man who helps tennis stars blossom

A recent tweet by Maria Sharapova shows her and Li Na posing with their agent Max Eisenbud (pictured above left). Their hands point to the latter’s belly, the photo accompanied by the hashtag #ItsABoy.

While Eisenbud is definitely not pregnant - as Yahoo Singapore can confirm when we met him earlier this week - the snapshot reflects the close bond the 43-year-old shares with his two most famous clients. Earlier this week he bantered with Sharapova (video below) during a meeting with the media, describing himself as her assistant. And Li's speech after winning the 2014 Australian Open drew laughter when she acknowledged him: "Max. Agent. Make me rich. Thanks a lot."

A former college player, he impressed childhood friend Justin Gimelstob, a client of sports and entertainment giant IMG, while helping him organise a charity tennis event. Gimelstob suggested he consider being a tennis agent.

The following year in 1999, IMG offered him a job and sent him to Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. His primary responsibility was to look after the young talent there and one of them, a 12-year-old Sharapova, caught his eye.

“I built a special relationship with the Sharapovas, who at that time had a lot of things that were going on and needed help with their visas,” he recalled. “So my timing of being there was good. I was able to help with a lot of tasks they were having problems with then, and built a relationship with her and her father.”

Dream job

He struck gold when Sharapova won Wimbledon at 17, leading to a rush of endorsement deals. She has since won four more Grand Slams and earlier this August topped Forbes’ list of best-paid female athletes for the 11^th time in a row.

Eisenbud replicated similar success with Chinese star Li, the only Asian player to have won a Grand Slam - she has two - and continues to help manage her business after she retired last year. He serves as CEO of Sharapova’s candy line Sugarpova, while other current clients include rising stars Madison Keys, Laura Robson and Ajla Tomljanović.

It is hard work, though. Eisenbud, now the vice president of tennis at IMG, is constantly looking at his Blackberry during this interview and one question has to be repeated because he was distracted reading an email.

“I do about 250 emails a day, sent and received,” he explained. “I am on all the time, 24/7. But I don’t think every agent does it like that – my family probably doesn’t like it, it’s just how I do it.”

He speaks in a genial, but clearly tired tone too. “With Li Na [in China], there’s a 12-hour time difference, so I usually get up in the middle of the night to look at my email and see what’s going on.”

Then there’s the issue of leaving behind his wife and two kids in south Florida while he travels, which he admits is “probably the most difficult part” of his life. But there is also no doubt that he enjoys his dream job.

“Probably the best part of my job is to watch a young girl become a young woman and then become a woman; just the whole process of maturation on and off the court.

“I'm going through it now with Madison Keys, who I signed when she was 12. It’s just an amazing part of the job to be associated with these incredible, talented women.”

Support for the stars

The best moments are not the big victories at tournaments, but the more human ones. Away from the prying eyes of the public, Eisenbud witnesses first-hand the hard work and effort the players put in, as well as how they cope with “relationships with boys and parents and trying to grow up”.

The worst is when the players endure difficult times, such as injuries or failing to see results. He does his best to support them through tough periods, whether that support is a hug, or a “kick in the ass”.

“You see what’s happening and nobody else knows. All my clients are like family so when you somebody going through a tough time, it’s difficult,” he reflected.

“You’ve just got to make sure the highs aren’t too high and lows aren’t too low. The tennis is [already] so difficult on the court and my job is just to try and make their life as easy as possible off it, so they can concentrate on the tennis.”

He confesses he “gets sick to the stomach” when Sharapova and Li used to play each other in big matches, but there is no tension between the pair, who have a “tremendous amount of respect” for each other. The likes of Keys, Robson and Tomljanović enjoy hanging out together as well.

Raising the next generation

There are spectacular moments too - such as when Nike recreated its iconic 1995 street tennis commercial by gathering its biggest stars in New York for a photo shoot this August. Serena Williams, Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi were amongst them.

“Madison was playing in New Haven and they had to helicopter her in and helicopter her back,” Eisenbud revealed. “That was pretty cool.”

There is a further sense of his passion for his work when Eisenbud says he sees himself staying on for a good while longer.

“I think I would like to see this next generation of clients through, Madison and Laura and Alja, so I don’t know,” he responds when asked how long more he plans to continue. “I'm 43, so maybe another 10 years - then I try to do something else.”