PATRICIO Apey, Andy Murray's agent, shared a dream with the rest of the world a couple of years ago. Well, he might have called it a dream: a lot of listeners reckoned it was pure fantasy.
"The numbers £40 million, £60m, £80m – all of those figures could be dwarfed if things work out for the guy on court," said Apey when Murray, still a teenager then, was just making his way into the world top 20. Now that things have started working o
ut for the guy on court big time, Apey's wide-eyed optimism is beginning to sound a whole lot more plausible than it did back then.
The Scot, now 21, won $750,000 in prize money for reaching the final of the US Open, and picked up another quarter of a million for finishing second on the US hardcourt series of tournaments. His career earnings from tennis are now listed as $4,065,268, with more than half that amount having been pocketed this year.
That sum, which converts to just under £2.31million, is impressive enough, but even if Murray kept earning at the same rate as this year for the rest of his career his tennis earnings would not take him close to the higher figures quoted by Apey. In common with other sportsmen and women, however, tennis players can earn far more in sponsorship and endorsements than they do in tournaments.
The exact sums involved in Murray's current sponsorship deals are confidential, but a round total of £10million is close to the mark. He works with RBS and Highland Spring, Scottish companies which see value in backing a compatriot, and with David Lloyd Leisure, Fred Perry clothing, the racket manufacturers Head, and 2K Sports, the computer company behind the game Top Spin 3.
The higher his profile in the tennis world, the more he will be worth to those companies, and the more others will want to join them. Particularly if he continues to do well in America, new markets and new sources of income will open up for him.
And, while Murray lacks the sort of squeaky-clean image which saw Tim Henman land deals with Ariel and Robinsons, his rebellious streak makes him attractive to a whole different range of clients. Some of his critics may see him as dour and surly, but there are millions of teenagers out there who do not necessarily see that as a bad thing. So far at least, Murray has a distinctly anti-corporate image, and that makes him very appealing to corporations in certain industries.
And even if he were to appear too edgy to too many potential sponsors, industry experts believe it would take only a minor change of image to get the money flowing in. "With a little twist you could turn that perception of him as grumpy and moody into that of a guy who is determined and passionate, who has a bit of an edge to him, a bit of an angry side," Phil Anderton, the Scot who is chief marketing officer of the ATP, said earlier this year. "Just a little bit of a transformation."
Murray may have been beaten by Roger Federer on Monday night, but it seems that financially at least he simply cannot lose.
The full article contains 559 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
