On Monday, July 21, 2014, the ATP official website announced the latest world rankings. Djokovic, Nadal and Federer still hold the top three positions.
However, it is not another giant Murray who ranks fourth.
Last September, Murray was sidelined for the season due to a back injury. After returning at the beginning of the year, he has not been able to find his touch. Although he broke into the semi-finals at the French Open, he failed to defend his title in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, and his ranking points dropped significantly. The latest ranking has been Dropped to tenth.
This week, occupying the fourth position is Swiss player Stan Wawrinka.
This late-blooming player defeated Djokovic in the quarterfinals and Nadal in the final at the Australian Open at the beginning of this year. He won the first Grand Slam trophy of his career at the age of 29. Now, he He also reached the highest ranking of his career.
Among the top ten, the most eye-catching are three young players:
Seventh, 23-year-old Milos Raonic; Eighth, 25-year-old Juan Martin del Potro; Ninth, 23-year-old Grigor Dimitri Love.
In addition, Kei Nishikori, ranked eleventh, is only 24 years old.
From here, it is obvious that players born after 1990 are entering a period of rapid rise, which also makes professionals once again question, "The younger generation can become the leader in breaking the monopoly of the Big Four."
The North American season, which ends with the US Open, has kicked off with great fanfare. This has also made people full of expectations for the performance of young players. They are speculating on which young players can bring surprises this year. But apart from the top 100, The subsequent rankings are also turbulent.
Who can say that the next world champion will not be hiding here?
That's what Tobias thinks.
One hundred, two hundred, three hundred... When your eyes fall on the list beyond the four hundred, you can see a name that debuted for the first time:
"473, +1769, China, Wen-Gao, 18, 80, 1, 0".
How to read this data?
It's not difficult.
The world ranking is at 473rd; an increase of 1769 positions from the previous week.
Then there are nationality, name, age and other data.
The last three numbers are more special. The total points are 80 points; the number of tournaments participated in is one; the number of points reduced from the previous week is zero points.
After a detailed explanation, it will be clear at a glance.
Relying on the 80 points of the Binghamton Challenge Championship, Gao Wen, who had never been ranked in the world, suddenly entered the top 500 ranks. He occupied the 473rd place on the list for the first time. He rode a little rocket and emerged from the sky.
Although it is always easier to rise in the ranking after 500 places, and one point can often improve several places, Gao Wen's debut still brought quite a surprise, especially considering that before Binghamton, Gao Wen Wen has no record of participating in any Hope Competition or Challenge Competition, which makes it even more rare.
Both the ATP official website and the ITF official website gave reports, focusing on the rising stars.
If you read the world rankings in this issue carefully, Karen Khachanov is ranked 404, Andrey Rublev is ranked 462, and Daniil Medvedev is ranked 1,751. Stefanos Tsitsipas is ranked 2133.
These players are all new generation players who will be ranked in the top ten in the future. Now, like Gao Wen, his career has just started, so you can feel the power of Gao Wen's ranking. He has also officially joined the ranks of the new generation players. The sense of reality suddenly became clear, weighing heavily on my chest.
This is Tobias's confidence.
When Gawain and his friends rushed to Lexington, Tobias came to New York and visited... Adidas in person.
reason?
Why Adidas and not Nike?
In fact, Tobias has always had a very close relationship with Nike. Another professional player Dimitrov in his hands signed with Nike, but this time Tobias did not find Nike, but chose Adidas. Naturally He has his own calculations.
As we all know, globally, the market shares of Nike and Adidas are equally divided. In terms of endorsement and sponsorship of competitive sports, the two major brands are also chasing each other. However, in the field of tennis, Nike has broken the balance and is far ahead of its competitors.
On the men's side, Nike has two superstars, Federer and Nadal; on the women's side, the two most profitable and marketable top players, Serena Williams and Sharapova, are also affiliated with Nike. It is no exaggeration to say that Nike It has an absolute advantage.
Moreover, tennis is different from other sports. Because it is an individual event, there are many variables in brand signing. In addition to Nike and Adidas, Crocodile, Fila, Under Armor, ASICS, New Balance, etc. are all very competitive. power, which further intensifies the difficulty of monopoly by the two giants.
Take the latest world rankings as an example. Among the top ten players, Nike signed players have four seats, including Federer, Nadal, Thomas Berdych and Dimitrov; the other six players They belong to six different brands, and Adidas has none.
Yes, zero seats.
Originally, Adidas was Murray's sponsor, but last year, Murray was injured for the season and the contract between the two parties expired. They were unable to negotiate a contract, so Murray fell into the arms of Under Armor, which put Adidas in such a predicament. .
Is Adidas ready to give up on the tennis market?
Obviously not.
According to authoritative market surveys, tennis ranks fourth among many competitive sports in terms of the number of global fans and the potential of the global market, second only to football, basketball, and track and field.
In other words, there is no doubt about the commercial prospects of tennis, and compared to other sports, tennis equipment is more life-like and fashionable. People are completely willing to buy tennis peripherals as daily clothing, which also means that market sales There is still more potential to be tapped.
How could Adidas give up so easily?
In fact, Adidas has been trying to break through from women's players. Ana-Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki, two women's players who once reached the top of the world, both She is their leading lady. It can be seen that Adidas still hopes to take the fashionable, young and beautiful girl route to compete with Nike.
However, the situation is not optimistic.
In addition, there is a very, very important point:
Chinese market.
Nike gained a foothold in China by signing Li Na, but what about Adidas?
In fact, Adidas has signed a group of young Chinese male players ahead of Nike, hoping that they can become famous, but so far there has been no harvest, and the Chinese market has not seen any signs of opening up.
It is precisely because of this that Tobias believes that Adidas is more eager and urgent. Naturally, he has more room to operate.
Now, Tobias wants to provide Adidas with an opportunity, an opportunity to open up the Chinese market, an opportunity to change the structure of the tennis market. He firmly believes that Adidas should seize this opportunity firmly, just like grasping a life-saving straw.
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