MADRID - Rafa Nadal has toppled Roger Federer from the summit of the tennis world rankings but overtaking his arch rival as the sport's number one in off-court earnings is likely to prove a much stiffer challenge.
Nadal, 24, joined the 29-year-old Federer and five other players on an elite list when he swept to victory at last month's U.S. Open and completed a career grand slam of all four major tournaments.
The Spaniard, who now has nine grand slam singles titles, has shrugged off the niggling injuries that had plagued him over the past couple of seasons and his career is very much on the up, while the Swiss, who has a record 16 major singles titles, is closer to the end of his.
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However, Federer's annual earnings of $35 million from sponsorship and appearance fees are still more than double those of Nadal, who makes around $15 million, according to an estimate by Forbes Magazine.
Both players had lucrative sponsorship deals with Nike, with Federer's worth around $10 million a year and Nadal's $7 million, Kurt Badenhausen, a senior Forbes editor who compiles annual rankings of athletes' earnings, told Reuters.
Federer, who is sixth on the latest Forbes list of the world's best-paid athletes, has sponsors including Credit Suisse, Gillette, Mercedes Benz and Rolex. Nadal, who does not make the top 50, has deals with Kia Motors and Spanish financial firms Banesto and Mapfre, among others.
Nadal's victory in New York last month was likely to dramatically raise his profile among corporate sponsors and widen his earnings potential beyond the tennis industry and regional deals in Spain, Badenhausen told Reuters by telephone.
However, the difficult economic climate and the fallout from the revelations about the private life of golfer Tiger Woods, previously the darling of corporate sponsors, had made companies wary of committing large sums to endorsement deals, he added.
HARD PRESSED
"If you look around the endorsement landscape almost nothing is getting done," Badenhausen said.
"Nadal's already a pretty established player and I don't think we're going to see five or six companies rushing to give him new deals."
"He's going to be hard pressed to surpass Federer in off-court income but I can see his earnings going up to $20 or $25 million over the next year or two."
Like Federer, Mallorca-born Nadal has many of the attributes that corporate sponsors look for in an athlete, according to Antonio Martin, director of the Masters program in sports management at the IE Business School in Madrid.
These included sporting success, an attractive character and physique, hunger to keep winning, a desire to improve and continue learning, humility, respect for opponents and accessibility to fans, Martin told Reuters.
In addition, Martin said, Nadal had a highly competent team of advisers at IMG, who also manage Federer and Russian Maria Sharapova, the top earner in women's tennis who recently signed a new deal with Nike that could be worth as much as $70 million.
Nadal's chances of overtaking Federer in off-court earnings would depend on how long he was able to maintain his current level of form, Martin added.
"His U.S. Open victory will certainly boost his brand value but I don't think as much as when he won the French Open or Wimbledon for the first time," he said.
RACE APART
Mario Oliveto, managing director for Spain and Latin America at Sport+Markt, a consulting firm, said that Nadal's hunger for success and his desire to keep improving set him apart from his rivals and made him a big catch for corporate sponsors.
He agreed with Martin that Nadal's victory at the U.S. Open would boost his earning power but probably not as much as after his first triumphs at the French Open or Wimbledon.
"His desire to keep winning is really that of a race apart," Oliveto told Reuters.
"If we add to that his humility, his always respectful attitude and his youth we have a player who has the capacity to carry on developing and winning for several more years, with all that implies for the value of his brand," he added.
Banesto chief executive Jose Garcia Cantera, speaking to Reuters in Madrid on Thursday, explained why the Spanish bank picked Nadal to front its advertising campaign. "We chose Rafael Nadal when he was not yet world number one," Garcia Cantera said. "We saw in him the skills we identify Banesto with, the same principles; always striving for more."
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Nadal set for Mallorca roleFederer hopes Madrid will provide turning point
