Paige Lorenze, Morgan Riddle, Ayan Broomfield and others dating tennis pros are signing up as many sponsorship deals as their romantic doubles partners. Inside the lucrative racket that advertisers can’t resist.
For many professional tennis players, the U.S. Open represents the busiest few weeks on the calendar. Given the proximity to deep-pocketed American brands, it’s a chance to schmooze current sponsors at events off the court and attract new ones with stellar play in front of thousands of fans in New York, plus millions more on TV. But in a handful of cases, the players aren’t even the busiest people in their own camp.
“I have probably as many brand deals as Tommy does during the U.S. Open,” says Paige Lorenze, a social media creator and entrepreneur who has been dating American star Tommy Paul since 2022. The 26-year-old Lorenze says she expects to post on social media or appear at events for more than 15 sponsors over the next two weeks, as well as host a pop-up event for her own clothing brand, Dairy Boy.
Lorenze is one of many tennis-world influencers experiencing a breakthrough year as brands attempt to reach audiences that aren’t traditional sports fans. Lorenze estimates that her followers—nearly 700,000 on Instagram—are around 80% female and that only 10% to 15% are tennis fans.
The trend holds across many sports—especially in the cases of professional athlete partners including Kylie Kelce, Ayesha Curry and a handful of soccer and Formula 1 wives and girlfriends—but it’s tennis that has the greatest appeal to marketers because of its year-long, globetrotting schedule; its historic association with affluent consumers; and the tradition of including cutaways to a player’s box as part of national TV broadcasts.
Forbes estimates that the most famous of these tennis-adjacent creators, such as Lorenze, Morgan Riddle (girlfriend of Taylor Fritz, the American star ranked No. 12 in the world) and Ayan Broomfield (dating Frances Tiafoe, ranked No. 20), will earn between $1 million and $3 million in brand endorsements this year.
Queens Royalty: Morgan Riddle and Taylor Fritz appear together in a new U.S. Open campaign from Heineken.
Heineken USA
Ashley Villa, founder and CEO of talent management firm Rare Global, which focuses on female clients, says these lifestyle creators have helped turn the country club aesthetic she calls “tenniscore” into a fashion trend over the past year, adopted by young women regardless of whether they actually play the sport. Content staples such as “get ready with me” and “week in my life” videos can attract sponsorship from fashion and beauty companies as much as sports apparel and athleisure brands.
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“There has been a huge uptick in this category [of sports creators],” Villa says, “and we also see that in the brand dollars behind what they’re willing to spend and put behind their activations at these events.”
Compared with creators who don’t carry the association with professional athletes, this new class of talent can command a premium fee. On Instagram, the most important platform in the space, deals range from $5,000 to $25,000 per post for most creators with similar-sized followings, according to Forbes estimates, while the range for creators in the sports world is $30,000 to $60,000 per post. Fees are slightly lower on TikTok, although a brand that wants to syndicate across both networks will pay a slightly higher total.
That amount of money has attracted the attention of talent managers and agents, who are steering clients toward a smaller portfolio of long-term partnerships rather than churning through one-off posts. In early 2023, Villa’s company began working with Riddle, a 27-year-old creator who has been dating Fritz since 2020, and has since signed her to long-term deals with brands including Grey Goose, Boss womenswear, Wilson, Bumble and bumble, David Yurman jewelry and Ole Henriksen skincare. Thanks to her work as an influencer, Lorenze signed with WME earlier this year and has secured partnerships with Target, Dove, Saint James Iced Tea and the beauty brand Wella.
This category of deals—which in many cases last for one year and require regular tagged posts and mentions in vlogs, along with an expectation that products might be worn while in a player’s box—can range from $200,000 to $500,000 each.
Mixed Doubles: Ayan Broomfield, a former national champion tennis player at UCLA, promotes Wilson apparel even as she dates Nike-affiliated Frances Tiafoe.
Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images/Lacoste
“I would be lying if I said that tennis hasn’t affected my income; on the brand deals side of things, it’s made my content more valuable,” Lorenze tells Forbes. “I had a very strong following before tennis, but I think it’s being adjacent to the sport that brands really like.”
While the greatest opportunity exists so far for female creators, it will be almost impossible to watch a match at this year’s U.S. Open and not see coaches—both male and female—in a player’s box wearing sponsored shirts and hats and other branded gear. The TV cameras also seek out recognizable player boyfriends and husbands, like rapper Cordae (husband of Naomi Osaka) and former soccer star Jozy Altidore (who married 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens in 2022), during matches, whether or not they attempt to monetize the attention.
In some cases, companies will sign up both an athlete and an influencer together, as is the case on a new U.S. Open campaign from Heineken featuring Fritz and Riddle. But for the most part, creators have their own distinct portfolios. Broomfield, herself a former national champion tennis player at UCLA, promotes Wilson apparel both on and off the court, even while her longtime boyfriend Tiafoe has an apparel sponsorship with Nike.
“I’ll tell him I have to use this brand, and he’ll say, ‘Well, I have to use this brand,’ so we have to try to work around that,” the 27-year-old Broomfield says with a laugh. “I think it’s better that I don’t have the same sponsors as him, to be honest. I think it’s nice to have my own lane, and he has his own lane; it’s not too conflicted.”
Broomfield began focusing on content creation only in January but says she has already been approached at tournaments by young women who tell her that her content is the reason they decided to attend the event. To that point, she says that she has seen some tournaments directly partner with creators, similar to the appearance fees smaller tournaments pay players to compete in their draws. Lorenze had one such deal with the Miami Open, under the title of “Chief Lifestyle Officer.”
The goal for both Broomfield and Lorenze, as with successful creators in other categories, is to monetize their followings directly through ventures of their own. Broomfield says she started creating content to fund her foundation, which supports youth athletic initiatives. In addition to Dairy Boy, Lorenze has launched American Charm, which sells home and lifestyle products.
While both are adamant that they are in New York first and foremost to support their romantic doubles partners, each is quick to point out how important the next two weeks are for their own careers.
“I call the U.S. Open my Met Gala,” says Broomfield, “because every single day there are events. This is, for the American girls, this is our time.”
