Nikolay Davydenko may not be playing this week at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami due to his wrist injury, but he’s still keeping himself in the tennis headlines with the ongoing battle between Dunlop and Prince over who he actually has a racquet deal with.
Ever since Mr. “Unsexy” starting beating Roger Federer on a regular basis and won big events like Shanghai and the end of year ATP World Tour Finals, it seems the racquet companies have finally taken notice. The Russian played with Prince racquets for years without a deal and recently joked at the Australian Open that Prince spent all of its money on Maria Sharapova. So when Davydenko recently signed a deal with Dunlop, it seemed a bit surprising considering his long term loyalty to Prince.
But not so fast. According to Sports Business Journal, Prince is actually claiming that they have a signed contract with Davydenko and don’t understand where this deal with Dunlop came from. Davydenko’s agent however says that Davydenko is testing out new racquets from Dunlop and in a recent match, the Russian carried out Dunlop gear though he still played with a blackened out Prince racquet.
So is Davydenko trying to play off the two rival companies for more money or is it all just a big misunderstanding? Probably a little of both as Prince should have realized the Russian’s potential awhile ago. Of course, racquet switches can be dangerous as we saw with Novak Djokovic who took awhile to get used to his new Head racquet back in 2009. Whatever way Dayvdenko decides to go, I’m sure it will be his wife Irina who will be smiling as she goes one of her well-known shopping sprees.
Read the Sports Business Journal article here.
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{ 3 comments }
Davydenko has made right desicion, how it was possible to play with prince rackets almoust for free. Strange managers in Prince company lost such a player as Nikolay
I can see you wanting to hold out for more money for a clothing deal but a racket? That directly effects your play. You’d think a player would just play the racket they are most comfortable and then sign a deal with that company or just play the racket with no deal. Your performance should be first on your priority list.
I agree that performance and the racquet you use is a top priority, but for someone like Davydenko who has, surprisingly, never had a deal with Prince, he may feel like he’s been loyal enough to them. Who knows who it will work out but Prince should have signed him years ago based on his consistency and not his fan appeal.
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