Breaking: Mercedes-Benz set to become the WTA’s new premier partner in record deal
With Mercedes onboard, the WTA gains cultural capital and commercial muscle at a ripe moment in women’s sports.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is close to finalizing a multi-year deal with Mercedes-Benz to be their new premier partner (a tier that will replace the title sponsor) beginning in 2026, according to three sources familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The deal, which will be announced later this month, is expected to be the largest sponsorship in women’s sports history. It replaces the medical device and diagnostics company Hologic, which has been the title sponsor since 2022 and marked the largest global sponsorship of the WTA at the time, paying $18-20 million a year according to two sources familiar with the terms. (The WTA declined to comment on this story.)
The deal is a huge win for the WTA, which has long struggled to secure the sort of category-defining, prestige sponsor that signals stability and long-term investment. Mercedes is globally recognized and deeply associated with performance, engineering, and excellence. Its alignment with the WTA will immediately elevate the organization’s perceived commercial strength in ways that Hologic (a smaller, US-centric medical brand) simply couldn’t.
Just as New York Fashion Week lost cultural cachet after Mercedes-Benz decamped as a sponsor, the WTA could see the opposite effect: a lift. Mercedes can help open doors the tour has struggled to access alone, including crossover marketing with fashion, design, and technology; deeper luxury partnerships; lifestyle visibility; and broader demographic reach beyond traditional tennis fans. At a time when women’s sports are becoming premium assets, this partnership will help to validate the WTA and its stars as part of that larger momentum.
The new deal has been in development for months and has taken time to finalize due to its complexity. One challenge, according to sources, has been determining how a global automotive partner would coexist with existing tournament-level auto sponsors such as Porsche and Lexus. As part of the agreement, the WTA is expected to buy out certain automobile partnerships attached to some 250 and 500 events. Larger tournaments—including Masters 1000s with their own auto partners, such as BMW’s two-year remaining contract with Indian Wells—and the Grand Slams, which negotiate independently (e.g., Cadillac at the US Open), are not expected to be affected.
The deal will include net sponsor exclusivity across all WTA tournaments but not title sponsorship rights in the true sense of the word (i.e. the mouthful “The Mercedes-Benz WTA Tour” is unlikely) as the organization moves into a new sponsorship structure meant to help commercialize its product. Mercedes will also supply vehicles for WTA events and, notably, is expected to sign several WTA players to individual endorsement deals, per sources. Right on cue, World No. 3 Coco Gauff announced a new partnership with the brand today on Instagram. While Gauff doesn’t need any help raising her profile, Mercedes’ involvement with WTA athletes could significantly bolster the tour’s ability to build stars—something they’ve struggled with in recent years.
The WTA tapped the Wasserman agency’s rights sales division in April to help facilitate an aggressive search for a new sponsor but I’m told by two sources that it was the IMG rights team who played a significant role in brokering the deal. IMG and Mercedes-Benz have had a longstanding relationship, most notably at New York Fashion Week in its early aughts heyday.
The luxury car company also has a history with tennis, having sponsored the ATP Tour for 12 years until 2008 when it let its deal with the men’s tennis organization expire amid the global recession and a shift in strategy away from broad title sponsorships to event-specific sponsorships such as the US Open. “That decimated the panache of tennis,” said one source. They have also sponsored individual players including Roger Federer and Sloane Stephens.
It remains unclear why Hologic’s title sponsorship is ending—some expected it to run through 2027—though the company was recently acquired by private equity firms Blackstone and TPG in an $18.3 billion deal that took it private. One source familiar with internal discussions said “there’s no bad blood,” and that the WTA hopes to continue collaborating with Hologic, particularly on their shared ACEing Cancer campaign, which supports cancer research and nonprofits focused on cancers impacting women.
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