ANDY Murray has helped British tennis to defy the credit crunch and secure a five-year sponsorship deal with financial firm AEGON, believed to be worth in the region of £25million.
Murray has broken into the top four of the world rankings this summer after winning the Masters Series event in Cincinnati and reaching the final of the US Open.
That success at senior level, coupled with the potential of junior Wimbledon champ
ion Laura Robson, has raised the profile of British tennis and helped pave the way for the Lawn Tennis Association to strike a "unique" deal with AEGON.
The agreement, which runs from 2009 to the end of 2013, provides AEGON with naming rights to the Queen's Club championships plus the Eastbourne International and Edgbaston Classic.
LTA chief executive Stuart Smith said: "This is a sea-change for British tennis."
The LTA announced in May that they would be seeking a new lead partner after undertaking a "root and branch" review of the organisation's sponsorship and commercial activities.
The LTA previously had a "scatter-gun approach" with 44 sponsors who, according to chief executive Roger Draper, would pay £10,000-£20,000 on the basis of 'Give us some money and we'll bang you some Wimbledon tickets'. The LTA plan to invest the additional funds across the four key strands of their business – the community programme, the competitive programme, the major event programme and the performance programmes.
Growing the professional events is a key strand of the LTA's business – the Masters Cup will come to Britain in 2009 – but Draper insisted they would not pay "silly appearance fees" in order to attract the likes of Roger Federer to Queen's.
The LTA's key focus is to use the sponsorship money to continue building the community game and uncover the Andy Murrays of tomorrow. Draper said: "We have to continue to run world-class events as they are part of our commercial operation and we have always said the best way to inspire kids is for them to watch the likes of Rafael Nadal play Novak Djokovic.
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AEGON have chosen to invest in the LTA at a time of increasing economic volatility, but the company, which
specialises in life assurance, pensions and investments, is adamant it won't run into trouble.
The full article contains 387 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
