The ATP and Emirates have extended their sponsorship agreement through 2030, and the Dubai-based airliner will pay 70% more than it did under their previous pact, according to the tennis tour.
With the renewal, Emirates remains the official airline partner of the ATP, and its branding will be placed on-site at nearly 60 ATP events, including on court nets.
Emirates, a global airline that primarily brings passengers to the Middle East, began to sponsor ATP events in 2013 and has twice renewed the partnership. The fresh extension begins in 2026, at which point Emirates’ financial commitment to the ATP rises from the previous sponsorship cycle of 2020-2025, according to the ATP.
Daniele Sano, the ATP’s chief business officer, said Emirates continues to see value in tennis’ more affluent fan base both at the courts and through live event broadcasts.
“They have decided to continue with us is because they think that tennis is the right sport that aligns very well their target audience, which is a more affluent audience compared maybe to other sports,” Sano said in a video interview.
There was also a matter of competition in the skies with Qatar Airways, and concerns that Emirates could lose, as Sano termed it, “its absolute position in tennis.”
“One thing that they lost two years ago, and that’s probably when they realized that they had to be careful, is they lost Formula 1 in favor of Qatar Airways, which is their main competitor,” Sano said. “So again, probably [in] tennis, they didn’t want to leave the door open to Qatar Airways, which is also investing quite a lot in sports sponsorship globally.”
Emirates sponsors competitions in a wide range of sports like horse racing, cricket, golf, cycling and Australian Rules football. The airliner is the kit sponsor of some of the most prominent soccer clubs in the world—Arsenal, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Olympique Lyonnais and Benfica—and is the title sponsor of England’s FA Cup.
In the ATP, Emirates will continue to have brand activations and host premium hospitality suites throughout all the tour events on the calendar, which include the Grand Slams and ATP Masters 1000, 500 and 250 tournaments. The airliner will also work with players to create digital marketing campaigns that will incorporate stories about life on and off the court.
One new wrinkle to the partnership is that the Emirates logo will now appear on the uniforms of the ATP chair umpires; the airliner has done the same with referees and officials in the NBA, SailGP, World Rugby and the International Cricket Council (ICC). The logo placement was negotiated through the tour, as the umpires are employees of the ATP and not aligned under a union like counterparts in other sports.
The men’s tour has racked up several major sponsorships of late. In May, Verizon signed a multiyear pact in the U.S. to become the official telecommunications partner of both the ATP and WTA. That deal was negotiated by Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns Tennis Channel, and it gives Verizon prominent ad on the network’s linear and digital platforms, including its editorial site Tennis.com.
The ATP also struck a global sponsorship agreement with Stella Artois through 2028, making it the official beer partner of the tour and its end-of-season finals, and Quint, the North Carolina-based premier hospitality company. In April, the ATP agreed to European-centric sponsorship deals with crypto platform Bitpanda and Purina’s Pro Plan product line.
While there was a long-held belief that the retirements of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal would drain interest in men’s tennis, the ATP countered that notion with record global attendance last year. Around 5.5 million fans attended ATP events, up from 4.8 million in 2019. The tour also reported a cumulative global linear and streaming audience of 988 million viewers across all of its media partners.
Sano said sponsorship interest could bring more money to players. He cited the ATP’s “OneVision” strategic plan, which was designed to guarantee a 50-50 split of tournament profits between players and tournament organizers. The strategy has led to renovation of tennis grounds for several Masters 1000 events in Cincinnati, Madrid, Rome, Paris and Shanghai.
“So, if more money comes in automatically, the prize money for the players will increase automatically,” Sano said. “It has a kind of positive virtuous cycle where more money is coming in, more money is going to be redistributed. And therefore, the events are getting better, more people on site, more money, more sponsors, and more money for players as well.”
Those windfalls are likely being followed closely by the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), which is suing the ATP, WTA, International Tennis Association and International Tennis Integrity Agency.
The PTPA alleges that the four bodies have conspired to suppress players’ earning opportunities. The ATP is seeking a dismissal, and was recently ordered to not retaliate or threaten to retaliate against players who may join the lawsuit.
