Cars of the Tennis Stars
By Tamara Warren, ForbesAutos.com Oct 20, 5:24 pm EDT
Tennis star Ana Ivanovic doesn’t have much time to drive, but that hasn’t stopped Verano, the Serbian distributor of French automaker Peugeot, from sponsoring her.
“Actually, my current car is the only one I’ve ever owned. I only passed my test two years ago,” says the 20-year old Serb of the 2007 Peugeot 207 she got as part of the endorsement deal.
Ivanovic spends most of the year traveling to tournaments, where she’s whisked from place to place by a hired driver. When not on tour, she relishes every opportunity to get behind the wheel.
“For me it’s relaxing to just go out in my car and drive for an hour or so,” Ivanovic says. “At home in Switzerland there is beautiful countryside, and it’s the same in Belgrade. When I visit my family I sometimes drive near the rivers.”
Ivanovic is the top-ranked player on the WTA Tour. She’s the ninth highest paid pro tennis player, according to Forbes.com’s latest ranking of Tennis’ Top Paid Stars, having pulled in $8 million in prize money and sponsorship fees over the past 12 months.
All Money, No Time
With millions in the bank and automakers lining up to sign sponsorship deals, getting cars isn’t the problem for top tennis pros, it’s finding time to drive them.
“It’s a young person’s game,” says Richard Pagliaro, editor of Tennis Week magazine. “When they first hit it big, they buy a nice car. The irony of tennis is that they play 11 months a year, and they train in December. A lot of them never get to use the cars.”
Ninth-ranked James Blake is a good example. He says he doesn’t drive as much as he’d like, but he makes a point of getting out on the road when training at home in Bradenton, Fla. “I like to drive since I don’t get to drive my cars so often. I’m traveling most of the time,” he says.
Blake owns a 2007 Porsche 911 Turbo, a 2007 Lincoln Navigator and a 2004 Cadillac Escalade. That’s quite an improvement from his first car: a beat-up Toyota Celica handed down from his brother. “We both learned how to drive manual on it, so I think by the time I was done with it, the clutch was destroyed,” he says.
The Porsche 911 Turbo, with a starting price of more than $125,000, might seem extravagant, but considering that Blake has pulled in $7.5 million in prize money and sponsorships over the past 12 months, it actually shows some restraint on his part, what with quarter-million-dollar Bentleys and Ferraris within reach. “The Porsche reflects my personality, because it’s my one fun little splurge,” he says. “With that fun one, I wanted it to be fast, and the Turbo is pretty fast.”
That said, Blake drives the large Navigator SUV, not the Porsche, regularly. “My cars are mainly related to utility,” Blake says. “I have the Escalade and the Navigator for when I need to take friends or a lot of stuff with me.”
Drive My Car, Please
Automakers have long courted top professional tennis players and sponsored tournaments. Mercedes-Benz is the title sponsor of the ATP Tour, the men’s tennis association. Lexus is the title sponsor of the U.S. Open tournament, held from Aug. 25 to Sept. 7 in New York. The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, a women’s tournament held in Stuttgart, Germany, dates back to 1978.
Tennis Hall of Famer Pam Shriver, who earned 21 singles titles and 112 doubles titles during her career, won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in 1985 and took home a Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet with her victory. She didn’t keep it, though. “It was a convertible. I was 6 foot 1. I didn’t feel like there was room for my legs,” Shriver says. Instead, she drove a BMW 7 Series, the company’s largest sedan, while on the pro circuit.
Now an ESPN commentator and mother of three, Shriver drives a 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan, which by her own admission won’t cut it for many tennis hotshots. “The players are young, in their early 20s, and especially the guys want to get their sporty cars,” Shriver says. “It really ranges from high performance cars to a lot of SUVs. The players who are Europe-based drive a smaller economic car. It depends on your culture and where you live.”
It could also depend on which manufacturer sponsors you. Maria Sharapova is the No. 6-ranked player on the WTA Tour and the second highest earner in pro tennis, pulling in $26 million over the last 12 months, thanks in large part to endorsement deals with high-end brands like Tiffany & Co., Tag Heuer and Land Rover.
Two 2008 Range Rovers are part of her deal with the British automaker. “For some reason when I was younger, I always wanted to own a Land Rover. Many people had them at my tennis club,” Sharapova says, who lives and trains in Bradenton. “I think I always loved their very distinct look. No other car looked like a Land Rover, and I loved that. After I won Wimbledon in 2004, I was lucky enough to build a relationship with Land Rover and in early 2005 we started an official partnership, and I got my wish of my very own Range Rover Supercharged.”
Kia sponsored Andre Agassi in the past. “Agassi was notorious for buying cars for friends and relatives,” says Tennis Week’s Pagliaro. “He was really big into sports cars. He’s a family guy now, and he’s got a hybrid.”
Now Kia has named Rafael Nadal, who is the top-ranked ATP Tour player and who pulled in $18 million in the last 12 months, its global brand ambassador through 2011.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz is among the sponsors that helped Roger Federer pull in the largest earnings – $35 million – in the past 12 months. Other players have been given cars from their sponsors, including Jennifer Capriati, who picked out a Ferrari 360 Modena in 2001 as a gift from her sponsor Fila when she was named the No. 1 player that year.
Audi of Hungary sponsors Hungarian player Agnes Szavay, a self-proclaimed auto enthusiast who drives her white Audi A3 Cabriolet 2.0 TDI to European tournaments close to her home in Monte Carlo. “I love driving, but unfortunately I spend limited time at home so I rarely get a chance to enjoy my car,” says 19-year-old Szavay, who was voted Women’s Tennis Association Newcomer of the Year in 2007. “I got my driving license two years ago, and I think my driving improved a lot.”
Unlike Szavay, Jelena Jankovic says she is “not much of a car specialist.” Hyundai Auto Beograd in Serbia sponsors the 23-year-old player, but she prefers to zip around in a 2008 Porsche 911. “My Porsche is fast, in good shape, and stylish – just like me,” she said.
Up-and-coming Jankovic, now ranked No. 2 on the WTA Tour, has her eyes on other sexy cars, too, and doesn’t seem phased yet by time constraints. “I saw an Aston Martin that I really like,” she says. “First I have to win a few more tournaments though.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/ten/news?slug=ys-forbestencars102008&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
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