Maria Sharapova believes tennis has an "engagement" problem and seemingly channeling her criticism on the WTA for failing to market its product and the players.
Speaking at a Bloomberg press conference, the former WTA No. 1 cited rising star Coco Gauff as a victim of the current circumstance. The 19-year-old rose to fame after winning her maiden Grand Slam at last month's US Open in front of her home crowd.
Winning a first Grand Slam tends to elevate a player's status as Sharapova can confidently attest to after beating Serena Williams to win Wimbledon in 2004. Players automatically gain cult-hero status due to an increased fan base. In addition, sponsors flock in packs waiting to sign up the next big superstar in the sport, not to forget the intense media scrutiny.
That's exactly how Sharapova's career turned in one glorious moment almost 20 years ago, and which Gauff lived through in the past month. The Russian was asked on what tennis needed to do to grow as a business, and Sharapova was highly critical of tennis leadership in building their brand and promoting the sport.
Sharapova cites Gauff's success as an example of how the WTA could have leveraged on that moment to engage its audience. Instead, Sharapova explains how tennis is disconnected from the fans, rhetorically asking how many people were actually aware that the American was playing at the China Open.
"I mean it’s a loaded question. There are a lot of options and roads. I mean look, let’s start with the fact you had Ted on the stage and I was listening to his talk on my way here and he spoke about engagement and the importance of engagement."
"You had Coco Gauff just winning her first Major at the US Open in New York City. I mean the crowd, the bridging culture, sport, fashion, all at that moment. Two weeks later, three weeks later, how many people know that she’s playing a tournament (China Open) in Beijing."
"She got to the semifinals and lost but I’m sure 99 percent of the audience at the US Open had no idea where she was playing next. Right away that’s off the bat, that’s a problem."
Sharapova believes there is so much untapped potential from social media in the current world, which would make it even easier to penetrate all audiences, that even players can interact with their fans from the comfort of a button.
"You can say in 2004, after winning a Grand Slam, Facebook was the only way I could interact with a fan base just with a photo or you know they’d see a video of myself. Now you actually know what your fans eat, where exactly they live, what they snack on at 3 p.m. You have this incredible connection to the fan audience. There’s so much untapped financial potential in the sport."
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