Africa-Press – Botswana. For the 17th year in a row, Roger Federer is the highest paid tennis player in the world. The case is particularly noteworthy considering that the 41-year-old Swiss player has not played a game since July 7, 2021 (when he was eliminated in the Wimbledon quarter-finals by Hubert Hurkacz) and that the previous year he was a long season stopped, on both occasions due to operations on his right knee.
Even without winning prizes in tournaments, Roger Federer, according to the ranking of Forbes magazine, has won around 90 million euros in the last 12 months. A value that is explained by the millionaire sponsorships of the Swiss tennis player that are still in force. Just to give you an idea, Federer has earned more in the last year than Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal combined.
Roger Federer’s sources of income are inexhaustible, including contracts with the Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo, with which the tennis player has worked since 2018, and which guarantees him around 30 million euros annually. And also sponsorship contracts with Rolex, Credit Suisse, Mercedes, Moet & Chandon or the pasta brand Barilla.
Despite the many rumors, Federer has no intention of putting an end to his career in the near future. In fact, he will soon return to competition, something that should happen at the end of September, on the occasion of the Laver Cup. Due to the long downtime, the Swiss is currently out of the ATP rankings, something that hasn’t happened for 25 years.
A few days ago, former tennis player and now commentator John McEnroe assured that he heard that the Swiss’s retirement is not planned for this year.
“Federer has the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen. Everyone likes him a lot, but I wouldn’t tour big tournaments if I wasn’t in the right conditions. I don’t think anyone wants to see him lose in the first rounds. was going to play the Laver Cup and the Basel tournament to withdraw, but I heard that he plans to compete in 2023”, said the American.
The last Grand Slam won by the Swiss was at the Australian Open, in 2018, when he defeated Marin Cilic in the final, winning the 20th major of his career at the time.
Osaka also profits
But sponsorship deals are not exclusive to the Swiss tennis player, former world number one and winner of 20 Grand Slams. Looking at the ranking released by Forbes magazine, it is possible to see that tennis players profit much more from sponsorships than from prizes for victories and participation in tournaments.
A good example of this is the Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka, who, despite being currently the 44th in the WTA ranking, appears on the Forbes list just behind Federer, with income of 56.2 million euros in the last year – she won only 1.2 million in prizes, the rest is income generated by sponsorships, cases of brands such as Nissan, Yonex, Adidas and Citizen.
Also Nadal and Djokovic profit (much) more off the courts. Of the 31.4 million won in the last 12 months by the Spaniard, who is fourth on this list, 25 were in contracts. In the case of the Serbian (fifth in this ranking), he earned 27.1 million, and 20 were extra prizes.
Djokovic, however, has seen sponsorship revenues drop in recent times, due to the controversies he has had for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19. This attitude led him to be prevented from playing in the Australian Open at the beginning of the year and will also be absent from the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the season which starts next Monday.
Out of the rankings for the first time
Roger Federer, who in 1997 entered the 803rd place in the ranking, is out of a list, which he led for 310 weeks, a record that was stolen from him in March of last year by Novak Djokovic.
Federer, who was 97th in the table before the start of the Wimbledon tournament last month with Djokovic’s victory, is left without points as the ranking is based on scores from the last 52 weeks. The Swiss tennis player has not competed since the 2021 edition of the London tournament.
The latest ranking, released last month, does not reflect the latest results, since the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which decided not to award points for performance in the Wimbledon tournament, disagreeing with the organizers’ decision to prevent the participation of Russian and Belarusian tennis players, due to the armed invasion of Ukraine.
In the table, Serbian Novak Djokovic, who won his seventh Wimbledon title in June, dropped from third to seventh place in the world tennis hierarchy and Australian Nick Kyrgios, beaten finalist, was also harmed by the non-attribution of points, falling five places in the ranking, in which it occupies the 45th place.
The Russian Daniil Medvedev, prevented by the organizers from playing in the Wimbledon tournament, continues to lead the table, followed by the German Alexander Zverev, who is second, and the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who withdrew from the London tournament due to an injury the day before. of the semi-final against Kyrgios, third.
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