Novak Djokovic, the world’s best tennis player signed a 10-year contract at the end of 2009 with Sergio Tacchini. The man who won 43 straight matches from the end of 2010 until Roger Federer, the best in tennis history, beat him at the French Open semis, and since then has lost only three matches this season (he retired in the ATP World Master 1000 Cincinnati final vs. Murray, and in Serbia’s Davis Cup semi-final against Argentina vs. Del Potro), has also broken the most prize money won in a single season in the ATP World Tour ($10,609,318).
Today Tacchini has Nole as its only tennis player on the books, having sponsored tennis for many years (since the 70’s) and used to be (with Fila) the leading brand in tennis sponshorship in the 80’s before Nike and Adidas moved into the sport. Having had names like McEnore, Connors, Sampras, Navaratilova, Cash, Wilander and Sabbatini, Tachinni has been part of the sport’s history since most of these players, among others, won their Grand Slam’s titles wearing Tacchini. The firm went into bankruptcy in 2007 and is currently recovering.
But today they happen to have won a bet when signing Djokovik, a young player who had already won his first Grand Slam title and was ranked 4 in the world. When Adidas decided to take Andy Murray and confirmed him to be his highest paid star for a 5-year contract, refusing to extend Djokovik’s clothing contract, Tacchini took him to be the company’s new image. The reason behind Adidas intention when letting Djokovik go are not clear, but both companies decided on betting for different players and one has blown up since the change in sponsorship, while the other one has kept his career constant.
Tacchini’s sales have risen with the success Djokovic has had this year, and the player receives bonuses with high-ranks and tournament wins as well as a share of the revenue from sales in China and worldwide Djokovic-branded products. This information shows the importance it has for a company to have as an image a successful player, and how do they make it possible for the brand to be a constant in people’s minds.
This has been the first time since Federer was at the top of the rankings that Nike has not been having a top-one player in its pay books, while Adidas, still having an important amount of players, none of them are at the very top. Clearly not being the same size of companies it is not a fair comparison, but still, a smaller company has secured a place in the industry having today’s best tennis player of the planet.
Written by: Alejandra
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/djokovic-dominance-boosts-sergio-tacchini-2011-07-27?pagenumber=2
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