Remember the sporting summer of 1986? It was the year of Diego Maradona's soccer World Cup that kicked off an 'invisible hand' debate that snowballed into something much bigger. It was the year of hearty pow-wows over whether glamorous Gabriela and sexy Steffi would finally loosen muscular Martina's grip of Wimbledon women's tennis.

See those days recrystallising on your memory screen? It wasn't all that long ago, was it?

But India's own Sania Mirza, ranked #77 as a tennis player by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), wasn't even born yet.

She's still to turn 19, you see. And if you want to put that in a demographic perspective-if only to explain the Sania Mania that has smashed its way straight into the forecourt of this vast landmass-just consider this nice little statistical comparison: India has a larger population of people younger than this teenager than the entire headcount of the us.

That's a lot of young people. A lot of people, that is, keenly interested in the success of other young people-on merit, under the gaze of millions. With population pessimism finally discarded, as behoves any progressive country with true ambition, that also means a lot of people who could possibly enter the workforce with a set of winning attitudes to boost the economy. The 'youth bulge' used to be a big source of worry (fears of civil unrest and instability); now, happily, it is a big source of optimism (visions of throbbing markets and innovation). Marketers from across the globe, or at least those who like to think ahead, had better take note.

Some already have. In fact, companies such as Tata Tea, which is something of a global marketer, deserve credit for grabbing the Sania stock just before it soared-and how. As recently as January, the tennis-to-be-superstar was endorsing brands for an annual charge of Rs 5 lakh or so, thanking little but her luck for the 'wild card' entries to the world's top tournaments. An encounter with Serena Williams (Australian Open) and a stunning upset win over Svetlana Kuznetsova (Dubai Open) later, her endorsement fee is about to bounce beyond the Rs 1 crore per brand barrier. An achievement shared, among celebrity endorsers, only with Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.

Wow! And to think it all happened so fast; almost in a flash of a moment all too adulatory for the teenager to fully comprehend. Indeed, life-size Sania posters have been selling fast, and there are throngs of fans who can't get enough of anything she says or does even off-court. India is a young country, and this point cannot be overemphasised. All this, even as she appears to get on with her life and career-talking fitness one day, a weakness for biryani the next-with unselfconscious equanimity. As if she's just another neighbourhood kid, vulnerabilities n' all, working towards a dream with pragmatic determination. And yes, with the resilience of a champion who knows it's not over till it's over (as seen in Dubai).

That's just the sort of success story, too, that attracts its share of quiet scepticism in corporate decision circles (quiet because nobody likes being a spoilsport). Business cannot afford to be teenybopper squishy. It must ask the questions that need asking. Is Sania Mania just a flash in the pan? Or a phenomenon of enduring appeal worth investing a few crores in? Sure, tennis players get at least half the TV screen time, unlike cricketers, and plenty of good zoom-in shots too. But being #77 is not exactly a shoo-in for a centre-court appearance at Wimble-don, where legends are made, or even Rolland Garros, where 'deuce' is called 'egalite'.

Well, her on-court performance may not even be so relevant anymore. Fame, fanfare and ad campaigns do not always go by the drumbeat of the actual world of tennis, from which Sania has already gained escape velocity. Sania Mania is a thing of larger stardom, as Tata Tea has found to its delight with the success of its Sania-starring 'rejuvenation' ad campaign-the exact reason for which is still under vigorous argument among ad professionals. Good. If her value as a brand endorser rejuvenates the debate on how and why advertising must burst ahead (and out in the open, unlike 'below-the-line' activities), so much the better. The business of brands and brand values, like the universe of celebrities and stardom, can do with a gamma-burst of energy. Like a roundly smashed tennis ball, the harder it is hit, the harder it should bounce.