Ever since Roger Federer retired from the game nearly 13 months ago, he has taken home anywhere between $95 million to $100 million USD as per Forbes’ list of highest-paid athletes in the world for 2023. The Swiss maestro seems to be reaping rewards of planning his life away from the tennis court, which was years in the making. Similarly, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic seem to be extremely self-aware not just about their game but more importantly now, their abilities away from the tennis court to follow a similar path like Roger Federer.
While the ‘Big Three’ have made it big because of winning like none before them, their business and media managers have played a critical role in ensuring that they lay down paths that are set to make them relevant even after retirement. The common theme for the three players, much like other top sportspersons across the globe, is to go beyond being tennis players whose reputation gets affected by wins and losses on the court. Interestingly, it seems that the trio could be seen in all 3 different avatars mainly, with Nadal and Djokovic being next in line to retire in the next 2-3 years possibly.
Roger Federer the coach, Rafael Nadal the businessman and Novak Djokovic the administrator?
Considering that Roger Federer has already retired, he has been seen travelling around the world and completing his sponsor commitments. But amidst all that, Federer ensures to take some time out to coach and spend time with children and youngsters. One prime example of this is the series Uniqlo has created called ‘Around the World with Roger Federer’ in which the Swiss legend interacted and spent time answering kids’ questions in cities like New York City, Tokyo, Shanghai and London.
To take this initiative one step further, Uniqlo recently announced ‘The Next Gen Development Program with Roger Federer’. It made its debut in Vancouver, Canada recently ahead of the Laver Cup 2023. At such events, Roger Federer and his coach of 16 years, Severin Luthi, will provide coaching and mentor 12 highly talented junior tennis players, who have been national champions or rank highly within their age categories. The programmes will also include a meet-and-greet session for a wider audience of young tennis fans who joined the event.
Courtesy his 15-year partnership with Mercedes-Benz, Roger Federer helped build a centre court in Abbey Wood near London as part of the brand’s global ‘Neon Legacy’ program. Federer has also been seen talking to and advising children as part of his charitable initiatives with the German car giant not just in Germany, but also other countries such as United Kingdom and China. Even in personal life, he has expressed interest in mentoring his children if they wish to take up tennis professionally. The Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton vouched for Roger Federer’s coaching skills at Wimbledon 2023, admitting that they had requested him to coach the next generation whenever he is England.
When it comes to professional ATP players too, Roger Federer was seen coaching the likes of Alexander Zverev, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic successfully at the Laver Cup when he was an active player for Team Europe. While Federer has investments and owns businesses too, he seems to be more passionate about going places and imparting his knowledge and giving smiles to his fans and more so, the underprivileged with his presence. So Federer could go ahead and perhaps have a big coaching role in the future, much like other Grand Slam champions like Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and Goran Ivanisevic.
Moving to Rafael Nadal and it is fair to say perhaps that staying out of the 2023 season has helped him reflect about his future outside the game more. He has used it to focus on his businesses such as the ZEL chain of hotels, his own restaurant in Spain, his foundation as well as the Rafa Nadal Academy. Although Rafael Nadal has expressed his love for children in the past, it is unlikely perhaps that he would go into coaching like Federer because it requires some different set of skills as compared to being a player.
Although his parents are separated, they both are from the world of business, which makes Rafael Nadal have a huge advantage in the field. With his initiatives also run professionally by his wife and other family members, Nadal is likely to focus the most on those post retirement besides sponsor and other public commitments. Hence, seeing Nadal the businessman might be a huge possibility.
Like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic too has his fair share of investments, sponsors and other income streams besides ventures such as his foundation. However, through the PTPA, Djokovic seems to have made it clear that he is more interested in fighting for the welfare of fellow professional tennis players. He has already devoted his own resources and time to it besides his tennis training and other commitments at the moment.
Hence, it is likely that Novak Djokovic could be seen in a top tennis administrator role in the future owing to his popularity, people-loving personality and outspokenness. Djokovic might be the biggest voice to save tennis, which seems to be in trouble at the moment due to pay issues to players, scheduling and poor marketing as compared to other sports.
In terms of comparing riches of the Big Three, Rafael Nadal has earned $134.64 million in prize money but comes second to Novak Djokovic, who has the highest amount earned by any player of all-time, as he stands currently at $171.25 million. Yet, both their net earnings are almost half of that of Federer’s.
As per Forbes, Rafael Nadal’s overall earnings are easily in the range of $500-550 million if taxes and other reductions are considered as well. On the other hand, Novak Djokovic too is very close to Rafael Nadal as his gross earnings is approximately between $510-515 million after his Wimbledon 2023 final appearance.
Both Nadal and Djokovic are said to be worth anywhere in the region of $220-250 million. In 2023, Djokovic earned approximately $38.4 million. While despite not playing for most of the year, Nadal still earned around $15 million as per Forbes.
Roger Federer may have earned $130.59 million in prize money, but managed to bag more than $1 billion in total throughout his career. He is the only self-made tennis player to do so. Federer’s net worth is estimated to be anywhere north of $600 million after blockbuster deals with Uniqlo and On in recent years, with him an investment in the latter.
