The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) are the governing bodies in professional tennis. Each focuses on a part of the tennis market and each controls their business and thus their sponsorship deals.

We take a look at the ATP, WTA and ITF sponsors – as listed on the governing bodies’ websites – first by comparing them and then by listing the partners of all three organisations.

ATP has the most partners

The ATP has the most partners with nine, followed by the WTA with eight, while the ITF has seven partners listed on their website

Although the amount of partners is not shockingly different, it is not surprising that the ATP has the most partners. For many fans, the men’s tour with stars like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic has the most appeal. The ATP is therefore in the best position to make sponsorship deals.

The women’s game is still slightly lacking when it comes to attracting sponsorship deals. However, the WTA and women’s tennis is one of the, if not the, biggest women sport around and they keep developing. This gives the WTA an advantage over other sports.

The ITF has a good position due to ‘owning’ the four Grand Slams, the Davis Cup and Fed Cup and its developmental role in the game, but at the same time the organisation is less visible than the ATP and WTA to fans. This could make it harder to attract sponsors.

24 partners, 23 different companies

23 different companies have official partnerships with at least one of the three governing bodies in tennis. Rolex is the only brand sponsoring multiple tennis organisations (two).

Sporting goods companies make the best partners

When the brands are categorised based on industry, you can roughly divide them into 13 different industries. Sporting goods companies are by far the most popular partner of the ATP, WTA and ITF with six companies active in that industry.

Information technology companies also seem to make an interesting partner. Each governing body has such a partner, but all a different one (ATP – Infosys, WTA – SAP and ITF – NEC).

ATP sponsors

The ATP has the highest amount of partners with nine. Noticeable is the different levels of sponsorship, with Emirates as Premier Partner the highest. They also have three Platinum Partners, one Gold Partner, two Silver Partners and two Official Suppliers. Three partners produce and sell sportswear and equipment.

WTA sponsors

The WTA lists eight partners on their website and like the ATP they use different sponsorship tiers. They have no ‘title sponsor’, but instead have four Global Premier Partners, one Regional Premier Partner and three Global Official Suppliers.

ITF sponsors

The ITF has seven different sponsors. It is the only organisation that has a (traditional) media company, beIN Sports, as partner.