It came down to the last day of the regular season, but the stage is finally set for the 2017 World Tour Finals. Eight singles participants and eight doubles teams will take the court at the O2 Arena in London for an eight-day tennis extravaganza starting on Sunday.
The eight singles qualifiers are Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Marin Cilic, Grigor Dimitrov, David Goffin, and Jack Sock. Two places were there for the taking at last week’s Rolex Paris Masters, where Goffin and Sock clinched their London berths. Sock had to win the title in order to secure a spot in London, and that is exactly what he did.
“There have been a lot of firsts (for me in Paris),” Sock said after winning a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career. “It started at the French Open with my first fourth round of a slam, now I’ve won my first Masters 1000 in Paris. This will be my first time in the top 10 and this will be the first time making the year-end finals.”
Sock and the rest of the field will find out their round-robin groups on Wednesday. As the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively, Nadal and Federer are sure to avoid each other at least until the semifinals.
The two groups will once again be named after past champions, a tradition established by The Finals Club–an initiative launched by the ATP in 2015. This year’s singles groups are named for Pete Sampras (Group A) and Boris Becker (Group B). Sampras won the year-end championship in 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997, and 1999. Becker was the winner in 1988, 1992, and 1995.
In doubles, Group A is named after Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, who won the event in 1992 and 1996. Group B is named after Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis, who captured titles in 1993 and 1998.
This year’s doubles lineup is as follows:
1) Marcelo Melo and Lukasz Kubot
2) Henri Kontinen and John Peers
3) Jean-Julien Roger and Horia Tecau
4) Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares
5) Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan
6) Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut
7) Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers
8) Ryan Harrison and Michael Venus
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Never understood how djoko has more sponsorship money than Rafa. I think it’s quality over quantity. Maybe rafa endorses few and select brands whereas Novak endorses more in number. It’s more important to see how much each gets paid to endorse a brand and not total sponsorship money as the number of brands can skew it. I think rafa does not endorse much right apart from kia ,tommy, Nike etc.
Novak Djokovic is one of my favorites.
Amazing guy! Just…. He has his own problems, but a good guy.
Talk later, kinda of busy.
Djoko attracts very good brands and it’s quality over quantity for him – ANZ bank, Peugeot, Lacoste, Heads rackets, watch (I think it’s Seiko) – the main ones. According to some reports, he gets paid $34m for those endorsements.
Rafa’s $32m (according to the same reports) – Nike, Babulot, Kia, Richard Mille, Banc Sabadell, Maphre insurance, one Spanish Telecom co., some Spanish food and also nutritional supplements co. etc. I think Rafa endorses mainly Spanish brands.
Of course the king of endorsements is non other than Fed. He attracted $58m! – Rolex, Nike, Mercedes, Wilson, Lindt, Moët and Chandon, Credit Suisse, Swiss Reinsurance, one Swiss coffee maker co., one private jet co, and one recently added pasta co. The pasta co. paid him $40m for five years, my goodness, Fed selling pasta and gets paid $8m a year! I didn’t know selling pasta can be so profitable – for the manufacturer and the endorser.
may be Rafa’s inferior English speaking skills have something to do with it?
Luckystar, AT 1:38 PM
You can see endorsements from June 1, 2016 to June 1, 2017 here:
https://www.forbes.com/athletes/list/#tab:overall
Luckystar AT 1:38 PM,
Maybe the Forbes’s data don’t include all the ‘endorsements’ Rafa receives. Sponsors support him via his business and other activities.
For example:
– Kia supports Rafa’s foundation, his academy, the Rafa Nadal Tour (children’s tennis circuit in Spain):
https://press.kia.com/eu/en/home/media-resouces/press-releases/2017/Stinger_Rafa_Nadal.html
– Dekton (a brand of Cosentino, a manufacturer of architectural surfaces) is one of the main sponsors of Rafa’s academy. Architectural materials developed&manufactured by Cosentino have been used for various facilities of Rafa’s academy and his restaurants TATEL & ZELA in Madrid, Miami and Ibiza.
Cosentino is a global, Spanish, family-owned company.
https://www.cosentino.com/blog/no-1-tennis-champion-rafael-nadal-presents-dekton-by-cosentino-industrial-series-in-london/
I think there’s also an airline deal that sponsors air travels done by his academy.
Luckystar AT 4:45 PM;
That airline is Air Europa.
And “Technogym is a proud Partner of the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar” 🙂
https://www.technogym.com/int/news-events-blog/technogym-is-a-proud-partner-of-the-rafa-nadal-academy-by-movistar/
Rafa does Hilfiger and Armani too, Bacardi is another, he has many endorsements of his own, his endorsements are absolutely fine, and nothing to feel ashamed or embarrased about ….
Also on tour hes the second most promoted star, and the biggest name after Federer ….
I think there’re a few reasons.
Fed has a head start over Rafa and Djoko, and most people are taken in by Fed’s beautiful game. The media at that time (as early as 2004) had already earmarked Fed as one for the ATG in future (I got that message while I watched Fedal Miami 2004 and the commentators back then were already talking up Fed, when Fed had won only two slams at that time! They thought Rafa would be soundly beaten in that match, but Rafa shown them he was also an ATG in the making! I was smiling to myself, thinking how wrong those commentators were, when they could never predict how the Fedal rival would turn out in future.
Rafa had his injury issues and each time when he’s at the top of the rankings, he suffered from injury and lost his top ranking, taking breaks to recover. I guess sponsors or potential ones had questions over Rafa’s longevity in the sports and that might be a deterrent.
Rafa’s grasp of the English language in the past might be another factor. Djoko, like Fed, speaks good English and Djoko’s long reign at no.1 and he rarely gets injured may have helped him in clinching those lucrative sponsorships.