It’s official! Iga Swiatek has signed a sponsorship deal with Tecnifibre and will be moving to Technifbre racquets in 2021. She was previously playing with a Prince racquet, without a logo. She did not have a contract with Price. Swiatek had used Tecnifibre racquets until she was 12.

With this move, Tecnifibre has two players in the women’s top 100. The French company previously signed Russian player, Daria Kasatkina. Swiatek will be using the Tecnifibre T-Rebound Tempo racquet, which is specially designed for female tennis players. She will be using the Razor Code polyester strings.

Daniil Medvedev, the number 4 ranked player in the world on the men’s side also Tecnifibre racquets. With Medvedev, 24, and Swiatek, 19 on its ranks, the company has positioned itself well with two young players on the tour.

Swiatek was seen practicing with Tecnifibre racquets in the offseason. It appears that she was comfortable enough to make the move. Top players are reluctant to make racquet changes because racquet changes impact their games. But a lot of money was also on the line for Swiatek. She was not sponsored by Prince, the American racquet maker, whose poor financial situation does not allow it to sponsor top players.

Swiatek, who won the 2020 French Open in stunning fashion was voted the Fan Favorite WTA player for 2020. Tecnifibre which makes racquets and strings was acquired by another French brand, Lacoste, in 2018.

Tenro Holding AG, the company that handles Roger Federer’s business interests has filed for four trademarks, “The Roger Clubhouse”, “The Roger Wildcard”, “The Roger Centre Court” and “The Roger Advantage” in recent months.

Tenro Holdings AG, which houses Federer’s intellectual property and real estate assets, also operates Roger Federer’s website, rogerfederer.com. In February 2020, the company regained control of the “RF” logo from Nike. The company also owns the “R.” logo which features the letter R followed by a dot and the “The Match for Africa” logo.

A few weeks ago, Federer announced the launch of Uniqlo caps with the “RF” logo. The Uniqlo caps, which come in 8 colors, also featured the “ROGER” logo at the back.

Federer is the Chairman of Tenro Holding AG. He continues to control the company though he resigned from the Board of Directors in 2018.

Learning lessons from the Nike Debacle

Federer left his long-term sponsor Nike for Uniqlo in July 2018 for a contract worth $300 million over 10 years. But Nike didn’t immediately release the “RF” logo to Federer and continued to sell products with the logo. It was only in February 2020 that Federer regained control of the logo when it was transferred from Nike to Tenro Holdings.

Federer was not going to make the same mistake with his investment in Swiss shoemaker, On. Federer’s team understood that Federer needs to own the logos himself and not leave them with his sponsors and investment companies. In 2019, Federer transferred the On shoe logos, “The Roger” and “Roger” to Tenro.

Like the “RF” logo, The Roger” and “Roger” logos are unlikely to become problems in the future since Federer is an investor in On. His investment in the company is reported as $50 to $100 million. The logo will become an issue only when Federer decides to break up the partnership. But it looks like he wanted to protect the logos in case something goes wrong in the future.

Monetizing Brand Federer

By holding the logos, Tenro can collect royalties from the use of these logos. Uniqlo certainly is paying Federer for using his logo on his caps.  That is also true with On, though Federer is an investor there.

Forays into Cosmetics

In 2003, Federer launched a fragrance and cosmetics line called RF Cosmetics. The sales were disappointing and the company was liquidated in 2009.

Retirement ahead but RF brand is a cash cow

Federer is almost 40 and is not likely to play for more than a few years. But the Roger Federer brand will continue to generate cash for him for many years.