Roddick Beats Federer -- Not on Court, but in Endorsements

Switzerland's Roger Federer may be the top-ranked tennis player in the world but America's Andy Roddick appears to be winning the race to the bank with lucrative endorsements.

On billboards, buses, bus stops, and subway cars and platforms in Melbourne, Australia; Paris; and London, Roddick's image has dominated the advertising messages displayed this year around the world's major international tennis championships.

Federer, while holding endorsements from one major sports apparel company, Nike, a major tennis company, Wilson, and three Swiss companies, is far less visible.

This, despite the fact that the 24-year-old Federer has beaten 22-year-old Roddick in all five championship finals they've played. In 11 tournament matches against Federer, Roddick has won only once, and that was two years ago in Montreal.

Roddick Is Everywhere

Yet now, amid the fanfare of the 2005 U.S. Open here in New York, Federer -- while making the television rounds, such as ringing the NASDAQ opening bell -- seems overshadowed, while Roddick is everywhere.

For American Express, Roddick glances out at Big Apple subway passengers under a tag line: "Has anybody seen Andy's mojo?"

For Lexus, Roddick stares down at visitors to a luxury automobile display just inside the gates of the National Tennis Center, where hundreds of thousands of patrons stroll during the tournament's two long weeks. He stars in a series of Lexus television commercials.

And for Lacoste, the French sportswear company, a giant image of Roddick smashes a backhand from atop a new Lacoste store at the side of Arthur Ashe stadium..

"He's close to $10 million per year," said Kenneth Meyerson of SFX Tennis, the sports marketing company which negotiates contracts for Roddick.

To be sure, Federer has earned almost twice the career tournament prize money ($18,236,073) as his erstwhile rival Roddick ($9,273,266). So far this year, Federer's earnings ($4,140,518) are almost four times greater than Roddick's ($1,526,385).

Federer's business affairs are managed by his mother, Lynette Federer, in Switzerland. His contracts include endorsements by three Swiss companies -- watchmaker Maurice Lacroix, food products distributor Emmi and Swiss International Airlines.

In May, the Federer team switched public relations consultants. An e-mail request to Lynette Federer for an estimate of the value of her son's current endorsements was not immediately answered.

For tennis fans, it is Federer's on-court skills that draw respect. But for corporate executives, it is Roddick's perceived ability to move merchandise that earns endorsements.

"You just have an easier product to market," says SFX's Meyerson, who may be unjustifiably modest, having negotiating deals for Roddick with Rolex, Parlux (fragrances), Babolat (racquets, shoes, strings), Microsoft X-Box and Sega, among other products.

Lacoste Deal

But the Lacoste deal has a special meaning. The company has a fabled name in tennis, but an indifferent marketing record in recent years.

"We were in discussions with Lacoste for 12 months," Meyerson said in an e-mail message.

When the deal was struck, it seemed an odd fit: Instead of Federer, who speaks four languages and dresses in stylish Continental suits, it was Roddick, a Nebraska-born American who previously wore John Deere-style caps and black sneakers. Suddenly, it was Roddick who appeared in an all-white, French-manufactured tennis outfit adorned with a familiar green alligator.