For the third time, the US TV station ESPN has compiled a worldwide sports fame ranking. The tennis professionals are doing very well again. Gentlemen like ladies.
Creating rankings in sport is a daily challenge for tennis professionals: after all, the position in the charts has a direct impact on the chances of success in the weekly tournaments. The determination of the individual ranks is transparent. Not always fair, though.
However, across disciplines, attempts are made to compare apples with pears at the end of each year. Unless ESPN, the largest US TV channel, has long been the most profitable member of the Disney family of channels. ESPN has for the third time attempted a ranking in which the fame factor of many athletes worldwide was evaluated.
Three categories played a role: How often is a name searched for on the Internet? The value of Cristiano Ronaldo was used as the index. Then: What is a star’s advertising revenue? And: What about success in the social media? The best value was included on one of the platforms such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
And lo and behold: As a global sport, tennis once again scores excellently. Especially with regard to gender balance. However, ESPn has just identified CR7 at the very front, followed by basketball star LeBron James and Lionel Messi. In fourth place follows Neymar, another man who can increase his popularity in Russia again in a few weeks.
But Roger Federer already belongs to fifth place. The Swiss comes off brilliantly in advertising revenues, while Federer takes things rather calmly in the social media. Rafael Nadal is also in eighth place in the top ten, Serena Williams wins the women’s ranking as twelfth with confidence.
Just behind Serena is Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova is 21st according to ESPN, and with Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep or Sania Mirza, tennis will be the majority of the most glorious athletes according to ESPN 100 in 2018.
Here are the top ten of the ESPN rankings
Here are the other tennis professionals in the Top 100