Dubai: The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour chief is convinced the sport will scale even greater heights from its current healthy position.
"Our five-year sponsorship with Sony, along with the support of our other sponsors, such as Dubai Duty Free, is the key to our success," said Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Chairman and CEO Larry Scott.
Sony has a five-year title sponsorship agreement worth $80 million (Dh300 million) with the women's tour, while DDF extended its sponsorship commitment worth an undisclosed amount for another four years on the Tour until 2011.
Under the deal, DDF will continue as the Tour's premier sponsor in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region and establish a major digital media presence through the Tour, including participating in a new feature of the Tour website, tennis video on demand.
Most of this success of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has been closely linked with Scott's joining the world body for women's tennis in 2003. "It has been a satisfying turnaround and we have managed to sort out most of the growth related issues. Consequently, the sponsorship revenue has increased five-time in the past few years," Scott stated.
The tremendous spurt in interest for tennis, Scott pointed out, is due to the growth of the sport in non-traditional tennis countries such as China, India, Russia and the eastern European region. "A lot of this growth has been fuelled by star power that has often times created the excitement needed," he added. "As the world globalises, tennis is well positioned for growth."
Prime importance
Of prime importance in this entire restructuring is the Roadmap 2010 that is in fact going to be implemented starting a year earlier in 2009. "The state of the sport is healthy. The prize money earnings have gone up considerably and there has been a significant increase in the interest levels for the game since 2003," Scott stated.
The women's tour has always advocated for equal prize money. "Dubai was among the first venues to support us in making a global statement for this cause of equality," Scott stated.
