Nadal axes IMG from lucrative cut of tennis earnings as career resumes

Rafael Nadal is starting over with his tennis career, and his business affairs.

The 11-time grand slam champion, who returns to competition in Chile today after a seven-month hiatus because of injury, let his contract with management agency IMG Worldwide Inc expire on December 31 last year. He "wanted to set up his own company", said Fernando Soler, head of tennis at New York-based IMG. 

Agencies such as IMG typically take a cut of as much as 15 per cent for arranging endorsement deals, according to Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp, a consultancy. Nadal made US$25 million in endorsements last year, according to Forbes magazine, so he may be saving himself as much as US$3.8 million. That's about half of the prize money he made in 2011, his last full season on the men's tour.

"Nadal doesn't need to look for corporate sponsors any more, they will come to find him," Ganis said.

Nadal and 17-time major singles champion Roger Federer, the sport's top moneymaker with annual earnings in deals and prize money of US$52.7 million who left IMG in June last year, are among the fewer than 10 athletes who are so well known they don't need IMG's 130-office global infrastructure to chase down deals, according to Ganis.

Carlos Costa, Nadal's IMG handler for 12 years, is now managing him independently and has started a firm with Nadal's father, Sebastian, German newswire DPA said.

Nadal, 26, has been suffering from a partial torn patella tendon and knee inflammation and has not played since losing in the second round at Wimbledon last June. Nadal, the most dominant clay-courter of his generation with 36 titles including a men's record seven French Open championships, is shunning hard courts for now.