Ping Pong Star: Biba Golic

For most Americans, pingpong is a punch line. But to Asians and Eastern Europeans, table tennis is a true sport, as real and competitive as tennis -- and its Maria Sharapova is a woman named Biba Golic. As the face of Killerspin (the Nike of table-tennis equipment), the twenty-nine-year-old Serb moved stateside a few years ago, bringing her tight, nylon-clad booty to matches across the country and accruing a rabid male fan base. "In Serbia, it was less about the show business and more about the sport," says Golic, who has cameos in this summer's Balls of Fury and the upcoming Ping Pong Playa. "I was very famous there, but the fans were more quiet." America is showing some interest: ESPN recently started airing pingpong tourneys. But Golic's dream of the Olympics may be out of reach. Though she's been playing since she was nine years old, was ranked in national college play and was a quarter-finalist at the U.S. Open in Las Vegas in July, she can't play for the American na­tional team. To play for Serbia, she'd have to move back there to practice. "I like Chicago," she says of her adopted hometown. "I chose a different lifestyle when I moved here."

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