By Rick Horrow and Karla Swatek
August 23, 2013
As the hard court season reaches its peak, the WTA Tour has added a software company to its ever-growing stable of sponsors. Germany-based business software company SAP will begin a multiyear sponsorship deal with the women’s tour by providing data analysis for WTA players, and then later, expand its analytic tools to include the media and tennis fans.
Today’s tennis stats are still pretty basic—they include such factors as first serve percentages, winners, unforced errors, and aces. But they don’t give players and their coaches much insight into how to adjust a player’s strategy in the heat of a match. The SAP products will add point-by-point analysis that will reveal players’ patterns and trends, and also integrate feedback from fellow pros, coaches, media, and fans.
SAP will also sponsor the WTA’s year-end championships, adding to a sports sponsorship portfolio that spans pro tennis, baseball, basketball, football, F1, sailing, soccer, and hockey, through partnerships with such world-class teams as the New York Yankees, San Francisco 49ers, and Inter Milan, and SAP ambassadors such as legendary golfer Gary Player and retired ATP pro Andy Roddick.
