Talk About Tennis 2.0

Not that I usually trust the daily fail, but:

Since signing with Duguid - who manages the commercial rights for two-time women's Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka - Kyrgios has earned more in six months than his entire career to date.

Kyrgios has signed deals with companies including PlayStation, Kia and Mexican food giant Old El Paso during that time.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -year.html

Griffith University sports marketing expert Dr Jason Doyle said Kyrgios had transformed his personal brand in 2020 despite barely being on the court.

'A lot more tennis fans understand him as a person now and have developed a liking for him,' he said.

'With sport branding - and athletes in particular - it's not down to what you do on the court as much as you do off it.

'This break in competition has given them the ability to show his personality and his charitable side and that has made his brand more valuable to sponsors.'

Kyrgios helped raise $90,000 for those affected by last year's horror bushfire season by donating $200 for every ace he scored at the 2020 Australian Open.

Duguid meanwhile, from top talent management firm IMG, said Kyrgios' social conscience and stance during the coronavirus crisis had also helped boost his appeal.

A story by a Sydney sports reporter also listed uber eats and Call of Duty.

Kia, PlayStation, Uber Eats, Old El Paso and Call of Duty all came calling with endorsement deals in the last six months – a period in which he wasn’t on the court. Kyrgios has maintained a strong relationship with Nike and Yonex, too.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/tennis/ ... 571m7.html

My two cents on Kygrios...

First, I sometimes don't realize that there are casual tennis fans. I personally know almost no one who watches tennis once in a while. They are either into it or not. I know that there are a few stars who draw non tennis fans into the sport (Serena first and foremost, then maybe Roger and Rafa, and Venus) but I guess in Australia there are more causal fans and Nick is a big deal and I can see his appeal to people who don't care so much about results or know about everything he does and says. They like him because he has a huge game, is extremely talented, has beaten the big 3 multiple times, does a lot of charity work, is very charismatic, and has a lot of likable traits that he shows to the world whenever he plays.

Personally I feel super conflicted about him. I love his game and as I said above, he has done a lot of charity work and evidently is great in a team format. However, it's really really hard for me to get past the whole Wawrinka / Vekic comment. It was just so misogynist. But people are complex. When I said I was through with him in another thread, I meant it more as a rooting fan. I'm just not going to watch his matches anymore because it's too frustrating.

It will be interesting to see how his story unfolds. It seems to me like even with playing so little, he'll have a very short career, especially by today's standards.

Kevin

Wild that Kuznetsova in particular after all these years isn't on this list, but also Kerber, Kvitova, and Muguruza.

It seems that about 80% of current female players have essentially the same service motion. I'd prefer to see more uniqueness and variety, myself.

Also, there is currently an abundance of female players whose family name begins with the letter 'K' - although I don't believe this phenomenon is related to the similarities in female service motion.

So indeed it seems that Nick Kyrgios will never be hurting for money. Although his agent's comments are a bit over the top (to me), his appeal seems established.
Which means that the sole motivation to really bring his level of tennis to being a Slam contender will be internal. And then I don't know if that will be good or bad.

ARub's hair is decidedly loose and free flowing these days.

I think loose would've worked there just as well. Just saying.

Andreescu has decided not to participate in the Olympics this year.

I'm not watching that video, but I surely hope that's a story about how a once very popular Serbian player that was incredibly well liked slowly but surely through actions and words by himself and his family couldn't get out of their own way and turned him into much less likable player that can be seen as a villain despite many opportunities to change course with many tennis fans damn near begging him to do so.

Signed - an early Novak fan whose support slowly slipped away and was begging him to please change his ways

JazzNU wrote: ↑Tue Jul 13, 2021 9:45 pm I'm not watching that video, but I surely hope that's a story about how a once very popular Serbian player that was incredibly well liked slowly but surely through actions and words by himself and his family couldn't get out of their own way and turned him into much less likable player that can be seen as a villain despite many opportunities to change course with many tennis fans damn near begging him to do so.

Signed - an early Novak fan whose support slowly slipped away and was begging him to please change his ways

Nope

ti-amie wrote: ↑Tue Jul 13, 2021 9:58 pm
Nope

Not surprised. Genuinely wonder how many people even remember that he was mostly seen as funny and charismatic early on before the many mistakes, mishaps, lapses in judgement or however you'd characterize the things that occurred that made him fall out of favor with many fans.