While the team at Race Party love all things cars, Summer in Melbourne brings with it one of our other favourite pastimes, tennis. While the Australian Open has been a bit delayed this year, the lead up tournaments are underway and the main event starts in a weeks time. To celebrate the first Grand Slam event of the year, we took a look at some of the biggest stars of the tennis world, and what cars they park in their garages.
1. Roger Federer -
Arguably the greatest tennis player of all time, Roger has had a long term sponsorship with Mercedes. Often seen behind the steering wheel of various Mercedes models, the AMG SLS Roadster seems to be his car of choice. The high powered V8 engine of the Roadster reaches a top speed of 196 mph, more than 50mph quicker than the Fed Express’ fastest recorded serve (143 mph).
If you have a couple of minutes spare, check out a hilarious Mercedes commercial featuring Federer across the ages in the video below.
2. Serena Williams -
Serena Williams’ car collection is almost as impressive as her tennis championship record. From Aston Martin supercars the Vanquish and Valkyrie, Bentley Continental GT, Range Rover to Mini Cooper, Serena has a varied mix of car styles from compact and fun, big and bold to high powered muscle such as the Dodge Viper RT10.
Since becoming a mum to daughter Alexis three years ago, Serena has returned to her motoring roots. She is a brand ambassador for the Lincoln Navigator, a big family car that also happens to be the very first type of car she ever owned as a teenager! See her commercial in the video below.
3. Novak Djokovic -
The current world number 1 has an estimated net worth of more than $56 million (US$), with well more than half coming from his commercial sponsorships. Nole has driven a range of luxury cars over the years, including models from BMW, Mercedes and Audi. When it comes to sponsorship he previously had a long term partnership with Mercedes, as well as taking part in an Audi promotion while in Australia in 2013 and filmed a funny commercial for the Peugeot 308i back in 2016 for his current role as brand ambassador for the company (see below).
4. Ash Barty -
Hometown hero Ash is currently flying high as the number 1 ranked player on the WTA circuit, and her rapid rise to the top is reflected in her driving history. Long gone are the days driving her very first car - a Ford Focus, or the next car - a Rav 4 that was needed to fit all of her tennis gear. Thanks to her sponsorship with luxury car brand Jaguar, Ash now drives around in a Jaguar F-Pace SUV, a well deserved reward for her ascent to the top of the sport.
Check out a Jaguar promotional video featuring Ash below.
5. Rafael Nadal -
While others are sponsored by luxury brand car companies, the ever low key Nadal has been sponsored by South Korean car company, and proud tennis supporters, Kia for over a decade. In 2015 when Rafa won the Mercedes-Benz sponsored Stuttgart Open he was presented with a tennis ball themed, yellow Mercedes AMG GT as a prize. When asked about his prize Rafa came back with the classic line, “It’s not a Kia, but it’s still good!”
There are a number of Kia commercials starring Nadal (google ’Nadal Kia 8 different looks’ for a classic), but for a local flavour see the Nadal/Kia/X-Men collaboration created for the 2016 Australian Open below.
Other notable tennis stars and their associated car manufacturers include:
Maria Sharapova - Porsche
Andy Murray, Milos Raonic, Johanna Konta & Kei Nishikori - Jaguar
Naomi Osaka - Nissan
Alexander Zverev & Juan Del Potro - Peugeot
Daniil Medvedev & Bianca Andreescu - BMW
David Goffin & Simona Halep - Mercedes-Benz
Race Party is very excited to support Project Optimism, a project which our Managing Director Noirin Mosley has spearheaded during Covid. We are very excited to announce that Project Optimism are giving everyone a gift of a free online course - ‘The Habits of an Optimist’. This course is a gift to everyone who would like to feel a little lighter and brighter and more optimistic as they navigate from what has been 2020 and head into 2021.
Why don’t you ask yourself what makes you optimistic and see how it makes you feel?
To experience this first course on learning to become more optimistic 'The Habits of an Optimist’ head to: http://www.projectoptimism.com.au and pass it on to your family and friends.
Let’s spread some optimism.
