A month after Serena Williams announced she was retiring, another tennis legend is in position to hang up her racket. Roger Federer said Thursday that next week’s Laver Cup, a team tournament he co-founded in 2017, would be his last professional event. .
The 41-year-old Federer will leave an incredible legacy on court, but whatever his position in the eternal comparison to rivals Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, he is undoubtedly tennis’ all-time monetary champion.
The Swiss ace has grossed $131 million in prize money since turning pro in 1998, third in ATP Tour history behind Djokovic’s $159 million and Nadal’s $132 million. Off the field, however, this is not a contest. Federer earned about $1 billion (before taxes and agent fees) in his career through his sponsorships and other business activities alone, according to Forbes estimates. He remains the most productive pitcher in the sport, with $90 million in annual off-field revenue, $10 million at the helm of No. 2 LeBron James.
That good fortune placed Federer No. 7 on Forbes’ 2022 list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, even though he only won about $700,000 in prize money at the time. He was the world’s highest-paid athlete on the 2020 list with a total of $106. 3 million and ranked as the highest-paid tennis player for 16 consecutive years.
Federer’s overall career revenue stream of $1. 1 billion before taxes and agent fees is more than double Nadal’s $500 million and Djokovic’s $470 million, according to Forbes estimates. It also makes him one of seven athletes from all sports, along with LeBron James, Floyd Mayweather, Lionel Messi, Phil Mickelson, Cristiano Ronaldo and Tiger Woods, to have surpassed one billion dollars while still active.
Federer has long-term sponsorship deals with more than a dozen brands, and many of them have remained with him for more than a decade, adding Credit Suisse, Lindt, Mercedes and Rolex. In 2018, he left Nike, which had paid him around $150 million over two decades, to sign a clothing deal with Uniqlo valued at up to $300 million over ten years. When he’s healthy, Federer could also ask for $2 million to play in smaller exhibitions and tournaments.
“The last 3 years have presented me with demanding situations in the form of injuries and surgeries,” Federer, who has not played competitively since reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals in July 2021, said in his retirement announcement, posted on his social media. “I worked hard to get back to being completely competitive. But I also know the functions and limitations of my body, and the message it has been sending me over the past few years has been clear.
Federer said he would “play more tennis in the future, of course, but not at Grand Slams or on tour. “But even if you absolutely step away from the sport, you can count on several of your sponsorships to continue. until retirement. Maria Sharapova, for example, has continued to announce Nike, Evian and Porsche since leaving the game in 2020.
Undoubtedly, Federer eclipsed Sharapova and each and every professional tennis player with her achievements on the court: 20 Grand Slam titles in singles, adding a record of 8 at Wimbledon; 310 weeks as the highest-ranked player on the ATP Tour, adding a record 237 in a row; and 103 ATP singles titles, second only to Jimmy Connors’ 109.
Could Federer one day become the fourth billionaire athlete, after Michael Jordan, James and Woods?Don’t tell it. In addition to his money, he has an undisclosed but significant stake in Swiss Shoe Lopass On, having invested in the company in 2019 and saw it go public last September. Its market capitalization is now about $6 billion.
“It’s amazing that this glorious company is headquartered so close to home,” Federer told Forbes in 2021. “Because the pandemic has forced me to be so much at home over the past 18 months, I’ve had the opportunity to work with them a lot more than usual.