According to Simon Briggs of the London Telegraph, tennis star Emma Raducanu is “facing sponsorship uncertainty” following her first-round exit at the U.S. Open, which prolonged her winless record since her victory at Flushing Meadows in 2021. This year, a number of Raducanu’s endorsement agreements, including her management-agency contract with IMG, are due for renewal.The worth of any extensions “may be impacted by her modest ranking at No. 72 and her dismal record at the majors.” She has never won more than three matches at any event since her breakout performance at the 2021 U.S. Open. Raducanu’s registered business, Harbour 6, reported earnings of slightly less than $13.19 million in 2023; but, because of protracted injury layoffs, her prize money for that season was less than $263,834. Her nine main sponsorship partnerships with British Airways, Vodafone, Tiffany, Dior, Porsche, Evian, Wilson, Nike, and HSBC are “likely to have contributed” the majority of her revenue.
WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING FOR?In the “early Raducanu days,” Owen Slot wrote in London that he believed she needed to “stop accumulating all those endorsements.” Position: “I was furious with IMG for making themselves rich — sorry, making her rich — so quickly.” “At what point does she play tennis more for the attention she receives from Evian, Tiffany, Dior, Porsche, and all the others than she does for the tennis itself?” Thanks to her victory at the 2021 U.S. Open, Raducanu has now gained notoriety as the “athlete who is not as good as we hoped she was,” but also as an athlete who is highly marketable. As a result, the media frequently covers the story of the athlete who struggles to find solutions, just as much as the story of the athlete who succeeds (London TIMES, 8/28). Raducanu could have qualified for the Masters events in Toronto and Cincinnati “the hard way, through qualifying,” but she “chose training in Roehampton instead,” according to Oliver Brown in London. “It is unclear if those in Raducanu’s immediate vicinity view such unsightly graft as beneath her.” Brown: “Do her affluent backers genuinely wish to watch her scuttling about an abandoned Mason, Ohio court? Or would they like to observe during a New York night session under the bright arc lights?
