Novak Djokovic: Superstar Must Find New Sponsor in Time for French Open

Novak Djokovic and Sergio Tacchini—his apparel sponsor—have mutually parted ways after a number of things went wrong between the athlete and company.

The world No. 1-ranked player has a limited window of opportunity to catch on with a new brand in time to debut his fresh gear at the 2012 French Open.

If you are wondering what caused the split between Djoker and Tacchini, it was an absolute mess involving numerous factors that impacted them financially.

According to a report by CNBC’s Darren Rovell:

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Tacchini was able to sign Djokovic by offering him a smaller guarantee than the larger companies would pay, but promised bigger should he do well. When Djokovic kept winning, the company fell behind on payments to the tennis star.

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Obviously, Nole has been the face of tennis over the past few years and has only grown more and more successful since he signed a 10-year deal with the company in November of 2009.

Djokovic has become the best player in the game and Tacchini may not have realized just how good he was back when they offered that incentive-laden contract.

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There were also design problems in that some of the outfits it put Djokovic in weren’t popular in the United States, where the biggest market exists to sell high end tennis gear.

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Just look at this ridiculous dragon outfit that Djoker once rocked during the Beijing Open. It’s selling for a mind-boggling 69.00€ on Sergio Tacchini’s website.

It’s a bit hard to believe that anyone would wear that thing, even if it were obtained for free.

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But the biggest problem was distribution. Many of Djokovic’s Grand Slam outfits never even made to the United States, including the apparel he wore when he won last year’s US Open.

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Retailers were complaining that the Djoker gear that didn’t look like a joke would never find its way to the shelves. Tacchini didn’t understand his market was in the US and put a primary focus on distribution in Europe.

It’s for good reason that Djokovic split with this horrible company. It’s now being reported by multiple Serbian sources that the star tennis player is set to sign with Uniqlo—a Japanese clothing brand—to wear their merchandise.

The brand is reportedly hoping they can get Djoker under contract and debut his new threads before May 27, the first day of Rolland Garros.