by Guest » 29 Apr 2024, 11:45
How Iga Swiatek became best-paid female athlete in the world
https:// www .thetimes.co.uk/sport/tennis/article/tennis-how-iga-swiatek-became-best-paid-female-athlete-in-the-world-56kdvnbng
It has been a significant fortnight for the world’s highest-paid female athlete. Last week she became the first sportsperson to sign a worldwide ambassadorship with the popular beauty company Lancôme, before Monday marked a 100th week as the best female tennis player on the planet.
Yet, more than two years after climbing to the summit of the women’s tour for the first time, there is a sense that Iga Swiatek is still not completely at ease with the fame that her sporting prowess has brought. Never one to chase attention and money, the 22-year-old from Poland acknowledged at the Madrid Open this week that there was some hesitancy in putting pen to paper on her latest deal.
“I’m really grateful they saw potential in me because I’m not the kind of person who wears make-up every day,” Swiatek said. “I wasn’t sure to fit in, but we talked it through and I think it’s a great partner to have, so I’m really grateful they wanted to collaborate.”
This reluctance to put herself out there commercially is a trait that has paradoxically worked in Swiatek’s favour when it comes to boosting her bank balance. Of the nine tennis players in the top ten of Forbes’s 2023 sporting female rich list, Swiatek finished top with £11.2million of endorsements topping up prize money of £7.9million. By comparison, her sponsorship income was only £800,000 behind the totals of Emma Raducanu, Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka, all of whom are regarded to be more eager in their deal making.
This is not to say that Swiatek has shunned this side of life as an athlete. Five months after becoming world No1 she signed with IMG, the management agency regarded as the most high profile in tennis. With it came the opportunity to work with Max Eisenbud, the American agent renowned for making millions off the court for the likes of Raducanu and Maria Sharapova.
“Everybody is different,” Eisenbud tells the Times. “Everybody has different wants and needs. I think that Iga is certainly not somebody who’s looking to do a lot of deals, but you start looking at her portfolio and she’s got a nice amount of deals with some great brands.
“It’s very similar to Maria in that her time is very important to her. She’s driven to be great and to compete to win grand slams, so deals in which companies and brands want a lot of her time are probably not going to be a great fit.”
Despite the limitations in time that Eisenbud can offer in Swiatek’s schedule, he has not been short of offers. The companies alongside Lancôme on her list of partnerships include Visa (financial payments), Porsche (cars), Rolex (watches), Lego (toys), Infosys (information technology), On (shoes and clothing) and Oshee (sports drinks).
In the negotiations that Eisenbud has conducted, he has observed why companies are attracted to Swiatek. Her success is an obvious factor, winning four grand-slam titles — the French Open in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and the US Open in 2022 — after a period in which there was much fluctuation in the women’s game. More of a surprise is that her shy and unassuming personality has also been cited as a marketing strength.
“Iga has been one of the most consistent performers in a long time, since Serena [Williams], Maria and that whole group retired,” Eisenbud says. “There really hasn’t been somebody who’s been just totally consistent, so I think that’s very attractive to brands. She’s consistently in the second week of grand slams, she’s consistently at No1. That and her passion for the game is something the brands can get very excited about.
“She’s just a good girl. You see her on social media, she’s reading books in parks and she’s very passionate about the charity work that she does. It’s just very refreshing. I’d say that those are some of the biggest things as to why a lot of brands want to be in business with her.”
Lego is perhaps the best fit of all. Swiatek often travels with sets of toy bricks to build models and puzzles during her spare time at tournaments. In 2021 she told The Times that it helped improve her mental strength.
“Basically, it is an activity in which you are not using your computer or phone, so it’s good,” Swiatek said. “It also helps before matches to stay active and not get tired.”
The irony is that Swiatek’s introverted style is at complete odds with her ruthlessness on the court. There is a memorable tale from the night she discovered she was suddenly one win from becoming world No 1 after the shock retirement of Ashleigh Barty. Rather than reacting excitably, Swiatek sat down in her Miami apartment and burst into tears with confusion as to how this might change her life. Three days later, she won her first-round match 6-2, 6-0 in 74 minutes to secure the top spot with minimal fuss.
Swiatek’s discipline and competitive nature can be traced back to her childhood. She is the daughter of an Olympic rower, Tomasz, who competed in the men’s quadruple sculls at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Little known is that her sister, Agata, 25, was also a talented tennis player who briefly competed on the ITF junior circuit before quitting because of injury. As is often the way, Swiatek’s urge to get the better of her elder sibling helped instil her fighting spirit.
“She was always a kid who wanted to compete,” Swiatek’s father told the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolitalast year. “First with her older sister, then with rivals on the court. As a ten-year-old, she urged, ‘Let’s go to a tournament for older girls, because we’ve already beaten everyone here.’ She was always looking for new challenges.”
That remains to this day. While the obvious goal and focus from here would be to complete the career grand slam by winning Wimbledon and the Australian Open, Swiatek is quietly relentless in continuing to seek domination from week to week.
“Iga is just waking up every day thinking about how to win tennis matches and how to be great,” Eisenbud says. “She’s just driven for that and I think you see that when she’s on the court. She loves to play, she loves to compete. It’s pretty impressive.”
[b]How Iga Swiatek became best-paid female athlete in the world[/b]
[spoiler]https:// www .thetimes.co.uk/sport/tennis/article/tennis-how-iga-swiatek-became-best-paid-female-athlete-in-the-world-56kdvnbng
[quote]It has been a significant fortnight for the world’s highest-paid female athlete. Last week she became the first sportsperson to sign a worldwide ambassadorship with the popular beauty company Lancôme, before Monday marked a 100th week as the best female tennis player on the planet.
Yet, more than two years after climbing to the summit of the women’s tour for the first time, there is a sense that Iga Swiatek is still not completely at ease with the fame that her sporting prowess has brought. Never one to chase attention and money, the 22-year-old from Poland acknowledged at the Madrid Open this week that there was some hesitancy in putting pen to paper on her latest deal.
“I’m really grateful they saw potential in me because I’m not the kind of person who wears make-up every day,” Swiatek said. “I wasn’t sure to fit in, but we talked it through and I think it’s a great partner to have, so I’m really grateful they wanted to collaborate.”
This reluctance to put herself out there commercially is a trait that has paradoxically worked in Swiatek’s favour when it comes to boosting her bank balance. Of the nine tennis players in the top ten of Forbes’s 2023 sporting female rich list, Swiatek finished top with £11.2million of endorsements topping up prize money of £7.9million. By comparison, her sponsorship income was only £800,000 behind the totals of Emma Raducanu, Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka, all of whom are regarded to be more eager in their deal making.
This is not to say that Swiatek has shunned this side of life as an athlete. Five months after becoming world No1 she signed with IMG, the management agency regarded as the most high profile in tennis. With it came the opportunity to work with Max Eisenbud, the American agent renowned for making millions off the court for the likes of Raducanu and Maria Sharapova.
“Everybody is different,” Eisenbud tells the Times. “Everybody has different wants and needs. I think that Iga is certainly not somebody who’s looking to do a lot of deals, but you start looking at her portfolio and she’s got a nice amount of deals with some great brands.
“It’s very similar to Maria in that her time is very important to her. She’s driven to be great and to compete to win grand slams, so deals in which companies and brands want a lot of her time are probably not going to be a great fit.”
Despite the limitations in time that Eisenbud can offer in Swiatek’s schedule, he has not been short of offers. The companies alongside Lancôme on her list of partnerships include Visa (financial payments), Porsche (cars), Rolex (watches), Lego (toys), Infosys (information technology), On (shoes and clothing) and Oshee (sports drinks).
In the negotiations that Eisenbud has conducted, he has observed why companies are attracted to Swiatek. Her success is an obvious factor, winning four grand-slam titles — the French Open in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and the US Open in 2022 — after a period in which there was much fluctuation in the women’s game. More of a surprise is that her shy and unassuming personality has also been cited as a marketing strength.
“Iga has been one of the most consistent performers in a long time, since Serena [Williams], Maria and that whole group retired,” Eisenbud says. “There really hasn’t been somebody who’s been just totally consistent, so I think that’s very attractive to brands. She’s consistently in the second week of grand slams, she’s consistently at No1. That and her passion for the game is something the brands can get very excited about.
“She’s just a good girl. You see her on social media, she’s reading books in parks and she’s very passionate about the charity work that she does. It’s just very refreshing. I’d say that those are some of the biggest things as to why a lot of brands want to be in business with her.”
Lego is perhaps the best fit of all. Swiatek often travels with sets of toy bricks to build models and puzzles during her spare time at tournaments. In 2021 she told The Times that it helped improve her mental strength.
“Basically, it is an activity in which you are not using your computer or phone, so it’s good,” Swiatek said. “It also helps before matches to stay active and not get tired.”
The irony is that Swiatek’s introverted style is at complete odds with her ruthlessness on the court. There is a memorable tale from the night she discovered she was suddenly one win from becoming world No 1 after the shock retirement of Ashleigh Barty. Rather than reacting excitably, Swiatek sat down in her Miami apartment and burst into tears with confusion as to how this might change her life. Three days later, she won her first-round match 6-2, 6-0 in 74 minutes to secure the top spot with minimal fuss.
Swiatek’s discipline and competitive nature can be traced back to her childhood. She is the daughter of an Olympic rower, Tomasz, who competed in the men’s quadruple sculls at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Little known is that her sister, Agata, 25, was also a talented tennis player who briefly competed on the ITF junior circuit before quitting because of injury. As is often the way, Swiatek’s urge to get the better of her elder sibling helped instil her fighting spirit.
“She was always a kid who wanted to compete,” Swiatek’s father told the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolitalast year. “First with her older sister, then with rivals on the court. As a ten-year-old, she urged, ‘Let’s go to a tournament for older girls, because we’ve already beaten everyone here.’ She was always looking for new challenges.”
That remains to this day. While the obvious goal and focus from here would be to complete the career grand slam by winning Wimbledon and the Australian Open, Swiatek is quietly relentless in continuing to seek domination from week to week.
“Iga is just waking up every day thinking about how to win tennis matches and how to be great,” Eisenbud says. “She’s just driven for that and I think you see that when she’s on the court. She loves to play, she loves to compete. It’s pretty impressive.”[/quote][/spoiler]