Tennis Australia, the sport’s national governing body, has announced a new three-year partnership with US sportswear brand New Balance covering its two major tournaments.
Under the agreement, New Balance becomes the official performance apparel and footwear provider of Tennis Australia’s flagship Australian Open Grand Slam and its nascent United Cup national teams tournament for the 2024, 2025, and 2026 editions.
As part of the partnership, New Balance will release an Australian Open co-branded line of apparel and footwear ahead of next year’s competition, with the range available to purchase online and during the Australian Open, running from January 14 to 28 next year, from New Balance’s on-site retail store on Grand Slam Oval at Melbourne Park.
The sportswear brand will also provide sportswear for ball kids at the United Cup, which will be played in Perth and Sydney from December 29, 2023, to January 7, 2024.
Cedric Cornelis, Tennis Australia’s chief commercial officer, said: “We [Tennis Australia and New Balance] share a common goal of growing tennis through innovation while honoring the sport’s rich heritage, making New Balance an obvious partner for two of the sport’s events.
“New Balance has a long history of investing in tennis, with some of the game’s biggest names as proud ambassadors of the brand. We are excited to work with New Balance as it expands its presence in the sport even further”
Other Australian Open sponsors include car brand Kia and airline Emirates, as well as Chinese spirit brand Luzhou Laojiao and Swiss luxury watch brand Rolex.
The deal adds to New Balance’s presence in tennis, after securing high-profile ambassadors including Coco Gauff (pictured), the reigning US Open Grand Slam winner, and Tommy Paul, who reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open last year.
Outside of tennis, New Balance has partnerships with governing body Netball Australia and Portuguese soccer giants FC Porto.
Earlier this year, New Balance lost a legal battle with Roma after the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) ruled in the Serie A side’s favor in an arbitration case after the US brand sued the club for breach of contract.
This gave Roma the green light to conclude a kit deal with German sportswear giant adidas.
The new deal comes as the ATP and WTA, organizers of tennis’ top men’s and women’s tours, and Tennis Australia prepare to stage the second edition of the United Cup, an annual mixed-gender national teams tournament held across Australia.
The new tournament, which was first held from December 29, 2022, to January 8, 2023, in Brisbane, Per, and Sydney acts as a warmup event to the season-opening Australian Open. It has a prize purse of $15 million.
The competition, which replaces the men’s discontinued ATP Cup on the tennis calendar, is a revival of the Hopman Cup held in Perth from 1989 until 2019 before it made way for the ATP Cup.
