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Nadal’s earning power may not match Federer’s

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 US 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.

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, said.

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.

“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 programme 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 said.

In addition, Martin said, Nadal had a highly competent team of advisers at IMG.