Rafa axes managers
RAFAEL NADAL is preparing to join Roger Federer and leave IMG Worldwide, the sports management company, just as it announces the recruitment of Novak Djokovic, the world No 1, to its portfolio of sporting stars.
When Federer declined to sign the new contract offered by IMG in May, the upshot was bound to be a realignment of the representative forces in tennis. The prospect of Nadal taking a similar decision – setting up on his own with his father, Sebastian, and Carlos Costa, his manager, taking care of his business enterprises – prompted the pursuit of Djokovic, for which IMG’s head of tennis, Fernando Soler, was in Monaco last week to finalise negotiations.
The loss of Nadal from the books will be another blow to the prestige of IMG, which had the world at its feet when Mark McCormack was the supremo. The company’s credibility has taken a number of knocks since his death in 2003. At least persuading Djokovic that he should move from the Creative Artists Agency to become its tennis top dog will be seen as a significant consolation prize.
Mike Dolan, the IMG chief executive, told the Financial Times before the Djokovic signing that the rise in the value of sports rights was inflating the size of deals that sport stars could attract, making it harder to hold on to the top names such as Federer and, it appears, Nadal.
The next story is whether Andy Murray will re-sign for XIX Entertainment, which has managed him for the past three years. Signs are that, despite moves from IMG and Lagardere Unlimited to prise him away from the company owned by Simon Fuller, the music entrepren- eur, that Murray will remain loyal.
Whoever represents whom, the stars of the game will be playing for greater wealth than ever at the Australian Open next month. The grand- slam tournament has announced that the two champions will each receive A$2.4 million and there will be a 32.7% increase in prizemoney for firstround losers, in line with recent announcements from fellow grand-slam events.
Nadal, who stepped down from his position as a vice-president on the ATP Player Council during this year, nonetheless hailed the news. ‘‘It is good to see that tennis keeps improving, keeps being healthy,’’ he said. ‘‘That is what we fought for, to make our sport bigger. This improved situation will help, but we cannot stop here.We need to keep working hard to make it bigger and bigger . . .’’