World No.41 Melanie Oudin of the United States has signed a four-year sponsorship deal with cellular phone service provider Virgin Mobile.

The surprising 2009 US Open quarterfinalist could earn as much as $2 million from the deal, depending on her tennis results, but is guaranteed approximately $500,000 from the company.

If the 18-year-old Oudin wins this year’s US Open (which is how likely to happen?), Virgin Mobile will donate $1 million to homeless-youth organizations as part of The RE*Generation program. The goal is to raise awareness about the homeless youth in the United States.

Oudin already has deals with BackOffice Associates and AirTran, that both came after her run at the 2009 US Open. (source: Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, photo: Women Who Serve)

Share This

The Women’s Tennis Association and Sony Ericsson have extended their agreement to the end of 2012, but in a reduced form.

Sony Ericsson will lose its naming rights when the current six-year $88-million contract expires at the end of 2010, so the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour will get back to being simply the WTA Tour, and the prestigious season-ending Championships will not be called the Sony Ericsson Championships any more. Nevertheless, Sony Ericsson will continue to be the leading partner of the WTA Tour.

"To have that leverage, for us to have our own brand back will give us new opportunities to attract revenues. By getting some rights back we can grow further," said Stacey Allaster, CEO of the WTA Tour.

No financial details have been released, but media reports estimate the new sponsorship deal to be around $27 million for the nearly three-year period. (source: Reuters, photo: warrenski)

Share This

Russian Anastasia Pavlychenkova claimed her maiden Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title by beating Slovakian second seed Daniela Hantuchova in the final of the Monterrey Open in Mexico.

The 18-year-old Pavlychenkova was forced to play both her semifinal and her title match in the same day, because of a rain delay. However, that didn’t stop the third seed from winning her first Tour final 1-6 6-1 6-0, defeating Hantuchova for the second time this season, after Dubai.

Prior to winning the Monterrey Open title, Pavlychenkova’s Indian Wells semifinal last year was her best result, where she upset Top 10 players Jelena Jankovic and Agnieszka Radwanska. By the way, Jankovic was top seed at the Monterrey Open and lost in the opening round.

Pavlychenkova has now risen from No.28 to No.25 in the rankings. (photo via Yahoo)

Share This

Our loyal reader Karunya reminded us that we had failed to report that 23-year-old Sania Mirza called off her engagement to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza in January. The reason for their separation is stated to be incompatibility, agreed by both Sania and Sohrab.

Sania Mirza and Sohrab Mirza got engaged July 10, 2009 in a lavish ceremony. Their families, friends for half a century, will retain good relations. (via BBC)

Share This

Former world No.1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland has become engaged to her boyfriend Andreas Bieri, a 38-year-old Zurich attorney, and will marry him this year.

The 29-year-old five-time Grand Slam champion commented on her engagement for Zisch newspaper: "It's true: Andreas has made me a marriage proposal. I was totally surprised. Of course I accepted."

Hingis used to be engaged to fellow tennis player Radek Stepanek. When they broke off their engagement in 2007, Stepanek started dating 11 years younger tennis beauty Nicole Vaidisova and they are getting married as well, as Women Who Serve reports. However, this is not the first time news about Vaidisova's and Stepanek's marriage are circulating.

By the way, new tennis blog called Goddesses of the Court has a nice and supportive post about Nicole Vaidisova's talent and her career slump, that as you know Radek Stepanek is often blamed for. (via WTA Women Tennis)

Share This