If you examine a list of the world’s richest sportspeople, you start to realize that there are certain sports in which it’s so much easier to earn money if you’re a star: boxing, football, soccer, tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, racing and cricket. At the same time, there are certain sports where barely anyone can make it onto a list of the world’s richest ath letes.

Think about the people who have reached the pinnacle of judo, fencing or high jump. They may have gold medals to hang around their neck, but they probably don’t have a Ferrari parked out front. The best curlers and bowlers may make the occasional appearance on TV, but they don’t have legions of adoring fans or multi-million sponsorship deals with Rolex. At the same time, Floyd Mayweather’s earnings are pegged at around $80 million annually, and Roger Federer makes a bit over $50 million.

Many people assume that soccer players are the richest in the world because the sport has such wide penetration, and a truly global audience, but you need to get quite far down the list before you will come across a soccer player, which is David Beckham at number eight. The English midfielder is 37, which is beyond the age where anyone can play their best soccer, but he is still a powerful force on the field. But the majority of his wealth actually comes from c orporate sponsorships, and not from his famous free kicks directly.

“The biggest earners are usually boxers, because they get a big cut of pay-per-view revenues, from events that are watched around the world. They have no teammates, no stadium and very little fixed costs – so there’s so much money that goes directly to the boxer,” said soccer tickets retailer StubHub. “Soccer players have a much bigger profile, and there are more of them, but – when it comes to money – the best soccer player is going to be knocked out by the best boxer.”

The Andy Roddick Foundation has finished its moved to Austin, Texas, now that the American’s hung up his racquet for good. One of the final things to make the trek from Boca Raton was Andy’s likeness as a Chinese terra cotta warrior, made up as a promotional campaign for the ATP Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai back in 2007. But secretly we want to know what happened to the warrior they made up for Nikolay Davydenko.

(Flashback: TSF’s interview with artist Laury Dizengremel about creating the warriors.)

Save the Date: The ARF will host its 2013 ARF Celebrity Golf Classic April 14-15, 2013, including a Bogey Down Dinner (get it?) “with Andy & Friends.”

Packing It In: Since all eyes (in theory) will be on tennis on March 4 — that’s World Tennis Day — it couldn’t hurt to highlight just one more facet of our sport. At the BNP Paribas Showdown in New York City, the 2013 inductees to the International Tennis Hall of Fame will be honored in a Center Celebration on the night of the exhibition. This year’s nominees: Martina Hingis, Michael Stich, Helena Sukova, Thelma Coyne Long, Cliff Drysdale, Charlie Pasarell, and Ion Tiriac.

WTD at MSG? BNP. And apart from the parade of vets will be a two-match line-up that will pit Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka (they’ve now played two three-setters in a row!) and Juan Martin del Potro against Rafael Nadal. This will be Nadal’s first American appearance since returning from his 8-month absence dating back from last year’s Wimbledon. Info: Tickets and other info on the BNP Paribas Showdown available at their website.

HOF: The Hall of Fame Class of 2013 will be inducted on July 13, 2013.

Babolat did a big push with their new Aeropro Drive racquet technology to start off 2013 (with a fun commercial called “Spin Attacks in the Dark” featuring Rafael Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), but we’re a tad more into the what’s going on with their apparel. Their current performance line includes a stripe pattern hiding in the placket and the left underarm of their men’s polo, presented as a piping detail on their men’s shorts, and also appearing as accents on their women’s performance pieces.

Marseille: The stripes showed up on Frenchman Maxime Chazal in the qualifying draw of the Open 13 in Marseille, France. Chazal received a wildcard into qualifying but lost in the opening round to Sergiy Stakhovsky. In the main draw, the quarterfinals are being played out today.




(Photo Credit: Yohan Brandt for Open 13)

1. Victoria Azarenka
2. Maria Kirilenko
3. Ana Ivanovic
4. Maria Sharapova
5. Mandy Minella

What do you think? Who did I miss? I ask you readers to complement my list! (Well, to be fair, I just want to see who I am missing from my small list that I can include on the next update!)

And yes, this article is really worthless without pics, so happy ogling!

This week’s stop at our local Out of the Closet yielded this YA novel, The Clique Summer Collection: Dylan, by Lisa Harrison. Here’s the loopy (moonball-y?) teaser on the back cover:

Dylan and her TV-host mom are off to Hawaii’s Aloha Tennis Open. While Merri-Lee interviews tennis’s wild child Svetlana “Tennis the Menace” Slootskyia, Dylan lets the tropical sun melt away the memory of getting dumped by two guys at the end of seventh grade. But between avocado mud masks and poolside naps, she falls in love with a preppy, tennis-obsessed hawtie. Dylan soon realizes the only way to score a date with him is to master the game. Can she convince moody Svetlana to spill the secrets of her tennis success, or will she end up oh-for-three in summer love?

“Hawties”? “Slootskyia”?! Ohmigawd! We’re not reading this, JFTR. At least not yet. Maaaybe if we find ourselves absolutely bored and poolside somewhere with a break in between a poolside nap and an avocado mud mask. Only then would we consider flipping through this to pass the time.

(Photo Credit: TSF)

Sightings in the Stands: The fans attending the Open 13 ATP stop in Marseilles have gotten smart about their autograph procurement.

Draw: The quarterfinals are now set for the men in France, with Jerzy Janowicz taking on top seed Tomas Berdych. Janowicz has made noise in France before (see: Bercy 2012), and with Berdych needing three sets to take down Ernests Gulbis in the second round, this could be another test for the Czech. Other quarterfinal match-ups are qualifier Dmitry Tursunov (who took out fellow Fila mascot Janko Tipsarevic) vs. Gilles Muller; Bernard Tomic against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Gilles Simon taking on second seed Juan Martin del Potro. (Draw: Open 13 Men’s Singles)

(Photo Credit: Yohan Brandt for Open 13)

Homepages: Not much going in the world of homepages this week, though we are into the country club cuteness of the banner for the U.S. National Indoor Championship — a combined tournament in Memphis. We also wished that their results pages was a little more dynamic. We had to scroll through a lot to find the draws for the various titles being contested.

More: The landing pages for Open 13 (ATP, Marseille), Copa Claro (ATP, Buenos Aires), Dubai Duty Free Championships (WTA, Dubai), and the Copa Claro Colsanitas (WTA, Bogota) –

after the cut…

(Photo Credit: screengrabs by TSF via memphistennis.com, open13.fr, copaclaro.com, dubaidutyfreechampionships.com, copacolsanitas.com)

RadioTennis.com has been selected by the USTA to webcast the trial run of their new “College MatchDay” Series. The campaign, which should be in place in 2014, will highlight two matches per week throughout the college tennis season.

The College MatchDay series kicks off Sunday, February. 24, with one of the biggest rivalries in women’s college tennis — the University of Florida versus Stanford University in Gainesville, Fla. The men will then be in the spotlight on March 22, when the University of Virginia hosts Duke University in Charlottesville, Va.

(RELATED: Virginia men win the 2013 ITA National Men’s Indoor Championships)

“There is so much great competition in college tennis, and we’re thrilled to be able to spotlight some of the game’s finest teams, players and coaches with College MatchDay,” said Virgil Christian, Director, Collegiate Tennis and Market Development, USTA. “We’ve got four of America’s finest college tennis programs launching College MatchDay this season, and we’re looking forward to growing the series in the years to come.”

“RadioTennis.com is proud to be associated with this new and dynamic series,” states RadioTennis.com’s CEO Ken Thomas. “And we look forward to sharing American intercollegiate tennis with our listeners not only here in the United States, but also and around the world.”

Broadcast Schedule: February 24, Stanford University vs. University of Florida; March 22, Duke University vs University of Virginia.

What about TV? JFTR, we’d watch this if it were on Tennis Channel.

Today saw the official launch of the Spring/Summer 2013 collection for the adidas Originals x Opening Ceremony collaboration, which takes from the colors and bright patterns of the early 90s and is inspired by the silhouettes of running and tennis.

Browse: All the looks are available at Opening Ceremony (and the tennis collection will be available in mid-March). FYI, the first collaboration came on the eve of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.



(Photo Credit: Images via High Snobiety)