Nike is dropping tennis players from its roster. And it’s adding performance criteria to get paid. Players are expected to perform well, play a minimum number of tournaments and keep up their rankings to get a maximum payout from Nike.

For a few years now, Nike has been gradually reducing its sponsorship of tennis players and focusing its efforts on other sports. This recent move suggests that Nike isn’t getting a good return on its investment in tennis.

Reports suggest that most players outside the top 20 in rankings are unlikely to make any money from Nike, but the company is still supporting the most marketable players, such as Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu – both grand slam champions and players who are popular in Japan and the UK, respectively.

Nike recently parted ways with Sloane Stephens, Andrey Rublev, Donna Vekic, Marketa Vondrousova, and Marta Kostyuk. If players are not getting paid, I expect a lot of tennis players to stop wearing Nike and switch to other sponsors.

Talia Gibson has been mostly playing on the ITF tour due to her low rankings. But the Australian star is a huge talent and is a name you will hear for many years.

In 2022, she reached the singles finals at five ITF events and won three of them. In addition, she also won four ITF doubles titles in 2022. She received a main draw wild card for the 2023 Australian Open singles draw.

Gibson has sponsorship contracts with Wilson and Nike. She has earned around $100,000 in her career.

Talia Gibson’s Sponsors

Wilson

Gibson has a  racquet sponsorship contract with Wilson.

Nike

She has a clothing and shoe sponsorship contract with Nike.