小威廉絲28日在澳洲網球公開賽決賽，以兩盤6比4擊敗姊姊大威廉絲，贏得個人生涯第23座大滿貫賽單打金盃，成為公開賽時代以來成就最輝煌的網球選手，世界排名也重返第1寶座。 35歲的小威廉絲（Serena Williams）第7度在澳網封后，締造歷史新高，同時她也超越德國球后葛拉芙（Steffi Graf），成為公開賽時代以來拿到最多大滿貫冠軍的球員
"Serena Williams now holds all four grand slam titles simultaneously, an achievement so rare it became eponymously associated with her – the “Serena Slam” – when she first managed it more than 12 years ago. Yet she remains the ultimate outsider, hardly less today than when she burst on the scene as a braided teenager nearly two decades ago: a black female Jehovah’s Witness from Compton re-writing the record book of a sport predominantly owned, played and watched by affluent white people.
"This is the ultimate American folk tale – and it’s still being written in real time."
Racism and sexism are for real, but Serena has overcome this double...
THEGUARDIAN.COM|由 BRYAN ARMEN GRAHAM 上傳
台灣女網好手謝淑薇在今年法國網球公開賽女雙封后，收下個人職業生涯第2...
i雙打世界第一
體壇第一人 盧彥勳反暴力服貿
〔記者梁偉銘／綜合報導〕「當某些人不斷批評這些學生行為是『暴力』，那
政府強行通過服貿迫使民眾接受，這不也是『暴力』，你們怎麼不譴責批評！」雖然遠在美國邁阿密參與男網名人賽，「台灣一哥」盧彥勳仍關心國內時事，昨天在
臉書粉絲專頁公開反對黑箱服貿，也是體壇率先表態的第一人。
經紀人老哥盧威儒表示，服貿協議風暴愈演愈烈，連體育界也看不下去，盧彥勳決定打破沉默，直言不滿政府黑箱作業。
盧彥勳說：「我和廠商簽合約時，都得要逐字逐條來討論，因為這關係到我和廠商之間的權利義務，更何況服貿是攸關全台灣人民的將來，為什麼不能逐條討論表決？台灣最可貴的是民主，不要讓得來不易的民主果實倒退！」
二○一○年勇闖溫布頓網賽男單八強的盧彥勳，以身為台灣囝仔為榮，這位三十歲老將跳出來力挺抗爭的學子們：「雖然我在邁阿密比賽，但非常關心台灣現在發生的事情，台灣加油！各位加油！」
****
決賽前，謝淑薇曾搞笑地說，如果拿了冠軍，她就退役了，昨天的賽后新聞發布會，她依舊興奮地談論「退休」話題，「我已經達到目標了，幹嘛還要打呢？就是要把最美好的時刻留在這樣的瞬間才好。」談到人生未來規劃，這位27歲台灣妹妹很期待
愛情：「因為我覺得成就這種東西是你努力了就可以得到的，所以現在當然會希望也可以擁有愛情。」
*****
2014-05-08 20:12
〔本報訊〕馬德里網球大師賽（Mutua Madrid
Open）台灣時間今晚6時進行女雙賽事，我國好手謝淑薇搭配中國彭帥，兩人歷經三盤惡鬥，以5比7、6比1、10比8擊退辛巴威布蕾克（Cara
Black）、印度蜜兒莎（Sania
Mirza），晉級四強。值得慶賀的是，謝、彭兩人，下週將並列女雙排名第一，謝淑薇更將成為台灣網壇史上，首位成為女雙球后的選手！
謝淑薇（圖）今與彭帥再度贏球，不但晉級馬德里網賽女雙四強，更因賺進積分，將成為台灣史上第一位網球女雙球后！（圖擷取自謝淑薇臉書）
謝淑薇（左）、彭帥（右）屢創佳績，不但曾奪下大滿貫女雙冠軍，今日贏球後，更將並列成為世界女雙第一。圖為兩人在印第安泉賽事的奪冠合影。（資料照，法新社）
馬德里網球大師賽 海峽搭檔晉四強
總獎金734.28萬歐元（約3.08億台幣）的馬德里網賽今續戰，謝
淑薇、彭帥今再聯手出征，迎戰第5種子、辛巴威／印度強敵組合。首盤中，「謝彭配」先遭破發，一度陷入2比5劣勢，但兩人隨後急起直追，硬是將局數咬至5
比5平手。盤末，辛、印組合表現較佳，終挾7比5勝出。
次盤中，「謝彭配」恢復良好默契，連連搶分，以6比1大勝，雙方須進入「超級搶十」決勝。本賽事的女雙賽制中，第三盤為搶10分，謝淑薇、彭帥一度以0比3落後，但最後逆勢勝出，10比8驚險過關，闖入最後的準決賽。
積分再漲 謝淑薇、彭帥將並列世界第一
現今女雙排名中，彭帥單獨第一、謝淑薇則是第二；此役獲勝後，兩人四強能賺進390積分（將取代彭帥排名所採計的芭達雅冠軍積分280分），讓兩人的下週排名將相同，並列女雙球后。
據悉，謝淑薇也將成為台灣首位職業賽積分排名的球后！有球迷大讚，此壯舉不簡單，「先是拿到雙打大滿貫、WTA年終冠軍，終於又登上雙打世界第一。」
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China win women’s doubles title at Wimbledon
LONDON — Having first played
together as teenagers, Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai won their first Grand
Slam title with a 7-6 (1), 6-1 victory Saturday over Australian duo
Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua in the women’s doubles final at
Wimbledon.
Hsieh became the first player from Taiwan to win a Grand Slam
title, while Peng gave China its first doubles title at a major in seven
years.
“It’s very special because I don’t think tennis is popular in
Taiwan,” Hsieh said. “We didn’t see many media during this tournament.
We’re very proud we can win this tournament together with my good
friend. It’s our first title, for Taiwan, so I think it’s big thing in
Taiwan.”
The pair, who are both 27, played a few tournaments
together as amateurs but ended their partnership after turning pro.
After a seven-year hiatus, Hsieh asked Peng at the 2008 U.S. Open if she
would be up for a renewed association.
The duo reunited by the
end of that year and won their first 11 matches, claiming titles in Bali
and Sydney. They lost their opening-round match in the 2009 Australian
Open quarterfinals against Serena and Venus Williams but now have six
titles together.
Both Peng and Hsieh play two-handed shots on both
sides, like Marion Bartoli, who won the Wimbledon women’s singles title
on Saturday.
“It’s probably the first time (two-handed players) win the singles and the doubles,” Peng said.
Peng
and Hsieh said they opted for this unorthodox style of play because
they were too small to hold their rackets with one hand when they were
kids.
The 12th-seeded Dellacqua and Barty were bidding to become
the first all-Australian team to win the women’s title at the All
England Club since 1978.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All
rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed.
*****
Martin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By JUDY BATTISTA 8:23 PM ET
Venus Williams, struggling with a sore back and nearing the end of her
tennis career, fell to 37th-ranked Urszula Radwanska in the first round
of the French Open.
Maria Sharapova
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DMIlzMVE0U
Marketing Maria:
Managing the Athlete Endorsement
Executive Summary:
Million-dollar endorsement deals will be made and broken by how baseball players on the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies performed in the just completed World Series. HBS professor
Anita Elberse discusses her research on sports marketing and her recent case on tennis powerhouse Maria Sharapova. Key concepts include:
- On a global scale, total sports industry revenues are expected to be nearly $100 billion in 2007.
- The highest-paid athletes often make more money from endorsements and other commercial activities than from salary and winnings.
- Marketing executives value entertainment-related endorsements because of the difficulty of reaching a wide group of consumers using traditional advertising.
- Companies look to hire athletes whose image mirrors their own corporate brand.
- Sports agents and agencies must strategically manage these assets because their clients' professional careers are often short lived.
About Faculty in this Article:
Anita Elberse is an assistant professor in the Marketing unit at Harvard Business School.
When Serena Williams took Centre Court at Wimbledon on July 3, 2004, few gave her opponent, 17-year-old Russian star Maria Sharapova, much of a chance. But Sharapova took the Ladies' Singles championship in straight sets, catapulting her into superstardom in the worlds of both tennis and sports marketing.
"That day, Maria's life changed forever, and so did mine," says Max Eisenbud, her agent at sports agency IMG, as quoted in the recent Harvard Business School case "Maria Sharapova: Marketing a Champion."
From a marketing perspective, star athletes can be made or broken over a course of a career or in the flash of an eye—just ask Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who was a top endorsement target of clients such as Coca-Cola until he was disgraced earlier this year in a dogfighting scandal.
Superstars throughout the entertainment world are of particular interest to Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse, be they a movie legend or a third baseman. She wrote the Sharapova case with Margarita Golod (HBS MBA '07) to study and frame classroom discussions on a favorite field of research: the value created and captured by superstars.
With the baseball World Series just completed with a Boston Red Sox sweep of the Colorado Rockies, we asked Elberse to discuss the business of sports marketing and the unique case of Maria Sharapova.
Sarah Jane Gilbert: What is the growth rate of the sports marketing industry? Is it primarily in the United States, or is it a global business?
Anita Elberse: The sports marketing industry, covering everything from television rights to endorsements, sponsorships, and merchandising, is an important sector and growing rapidly. In its
Global Entertainment and Media Outlook, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that the sports industry accounted for around $50 billion in revenues in the United States in 2007, up from just under $35 billion in 2001. On a global scale, total revenues are expected to be nearly $100 billion this year, compared with $70 billion in 2001.
As far as endorsements are concerned, marketers increasingly turn to athletes to promote their products. The marketing executives I spoke with told me they value these endorsements especially because it is getting more and more difficult to reach a wide group of consumers using traditional ways of advertising such as television commercials, and harder to gain credibility with commercial messages.
"The sports marketing industry is a global business."
As a result, many of the highest-paid athletes now make more money from endorsements and other commercial activities than from salary and winnings. The majority of top-paid athletes is American or, like Maria Sharapova, based in America. The list includes golfer Tiger Woods, basketball players Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James, baseball players Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, football quarterback Peyton Manning, and soccer player David Beckham.
However, the sports marketing industry is a global business, with international stars such as soccer players Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry as well as tennis star Roger Federer being particularly sought-after endorsers.
Q: What was the evolution of using athletes to promote commercial products? Was there a pioneer in sports promotion?
A: Mark McCormack, the founder of leading sports agency IMG, which counts Maria Sharapova as one of its clients, is widely seen as the catalyst behind what has become the sports marketing industry. Legend has it that in 1960, McCormack, a lawyer, approached Arnold Palmer, then a young golfer, and told him that he saw potential in sports endorsements in the television age. McCormack informed Palmer that he was planning to start up a business revolving around personal business managers or "agents" handling professional golfers' affairs. Palmer agreed to be his first client and to pay a commission on his marketing endorsements in exchange for McCormack's services.
Of course Palmer later emerged as one of the greatest players in the history of golf, and the agreement was an extremely lucrative one for both parties. Their handshake established the company that would evolve into IMG.
IMG now ranks among the world's largest private companies. It represents hundreds of athletes and other celebrities, and reportedly is commercially involved in an average of 10 major sports and cultural events around the world every day.
Q: What led you to write a case on Maria Sharapova?
A: Most of my research centers on the media, entertainment, and sports industries. One general question I try to answer in my research is what value is created by superstars in these sectors, and how much of that value these stars themselves capture. I was therefore keen to understand how athletes and their agents approach decisions regarding endorsements.
Similarly, because star athletes and other celebrities are "brands" that have certain meanings for consumers, companies can spend millions of dollars to align themselves with those celebrities. They hope those celebrities' brands "rub off" on the products they are trying to sell, be it apparel, cars, or beauty products. By conducting field research, I wanted to better grasp what has now become a key marketing instrument for many companies, and understand how and why they make these bets on athletes.
"Canon chose Sharapova because she possesses a number of qualities that fit with its PowerShot digital camera brand."
Fortunately, one of my students, Margarita Golod came to the rescue and connected me with Maria Sharapova. Sharapova was the ideal study subject in many respects. After her 2004 Wimbledon victory, she closed a range of highly lucrative endorsement deals, making her the highest-paid female athlete in the past few years. She is represented by IMG, which is widely regarded as having developed best practices in this area. And it turned out that Sharapova, her agent Max Eisenbud, and other IMG executives had very interesting ideas about what constitutes the best marketing strategy for a star athlete.
Q: Was there anything in your research that surprised you?
A: I am not sure surprised is the right word, but I was certainly impressed when I learned the ins and outs of Sharapova's endorsement strategy and the execution of that strategy. Considering the limited free time an athlete like Sharapova has in a year filled with training sessions and tournaments across the globe—less than 20 days remain for sponsorship commitments—I found it remarkable to learn how much value is generated.
Eisenbud and the other IMG people on "team Sharapova" are very selective when it comes to endorsement opportunities, and appear to give a great deal of thought to long-term endorsement portfolio management.
Q: Did you uncover any trends in your research? For instance, are athletic endorsements gender-based, and are some sports more lucrative than others?
A: I have not (yet) conducted any large-scale quantitative studies that provide conclusive evidence on these issues, but I did find it interesting to hear Eisenbud point to what appears to be a competitive advantage for female endorsers. If a company is looking for an endorser with global star appeal, it has a reasonably large group of male athletes to choose from, but only a select few female athletes. This likely has contributed to Sharapova's phenomenal marketing success.
Also, some sports certainly generate a disproportionate amount of athletic endorsers. Formula 1 racing, golf, tennis, and soccer account for the lion's share of endorsers with global appeal. In the United States, football, basketball, baseball, and NASCAR racing probably account for the largest share of endorsements.
Q: What role does an agent play in building an athlete's brand and ensuring his or her success?
A: The agent plays a critical role. Eisenbud is the liaison between Sharapova, the companies whose products she endorses, and any other interested parties. It's up to Eisenbud and his team to ensure the health of those relationships. Eisenbud also must effectively use the resources at his disposal within IMG, such as the sales division, which keeps in close contact with the corporate world; IMG's promotion and event marketing, which may feature Sharapova; and other divisions, like the Fashion group, that are relevant to her career as a celebrity.
Because athletes have relatively short careers compared to most other professionals, it is extremely important to strategically manage these assets and to make the right decisions at the right times.
Q: What makes for great appeal in athletic endorsements—is there a secret ingredient as to who will be a successful promoter?
A: I am not sure there is a secret ingredient. I think it is more about the entire "recipe" being right.
Companies try to find athletes with brand attributes that match those of the products the athlete is asked to endorse, or at least that match the attributes the company hopes to associate with those products. For example, Canon chose Sharapova to promote its PowerShot digital camera because she possesses a number of qualities that fit with the brand-being powerful but with precision, and having a sense of style.
Other companies that have enlisted Sharapova's services frequently point to her reputation as a winner who never gives up. Having the right combination of brand attributes thus is key.
Other aspects play a role too, such as good looks, public-speaking skills, and overall image. It does not hurt that Sharapova is regarded as one of the most beautiful athletes in the world. But when I had the opportunity to follow her for a day of sponsorship and other commitments in New York City, I also learned she is a business professional and comfortable speaking in front of various groups; it's easy to forget she is still only 20 years old.
Finally, scandals or legal troubles such as those for Michael Vick and Kobe Bryant can seriously limit an athlete's ability to attract and retain endorsements, so most companies look for endorsers with a clean image.
About the author
Sarah Jane Gilbert is a product manager for Harvard Business School's Knowledge and Library Services.
Interactive Feature: Nadal’s Knee
