The spectacular success of Andy Murray at this year’s Wimbledon 2013 final, had most of the country gripped even though Britain was experiencing one of its hottest days ever, people opted to stay indoors and watch each gripping moment of Murrays match to success, rather than going out doors to make the most of the scorching temperatures.
Even though at times it seems cricket is the sport of choice for many millions of south Asians this year Wimbledon final had many of them glued to their TV sets, the nail biting win for Murray has not just given the UK some much needed good news but has also inspired many youngsters to pursue this racket sport. One of them is Ahmed he is an 11 year old boy from Birmingham who watched the whole Wimbledon tournament with his mum Shameem and told us “I just loved every minute of the tennis this year and Murray’s win has inspired me to take up tennis and I believe maybe I can be where he is one day.”
It has taken 77 years for a UK person to win at Wimbledon so this game and its winner will go down in history, many believe Murray will also be knighted by the Queen as he walked away with a prize money of £1.6 million, (which is believed he has donated to charity – the Royal Marsden hospital) but this is just a drop in the ocean compared to the money he could make off court.
The prosperity of a tennis player comes from prize money, appearance fees, and merchandising. Murray is already a big earner in all these departments. In the last set of company accounts he submitted he showed that he made £940,000 in appearance fees in 2011, and an astounding £5.4 million in merchandising.
He has not yet submitted his accounts for 2012, but a year that saw an Olympic win and a Wimbledon final is expected to take that total to £8 million.
According to marketing magazine, the Wimbledon win is likely to lift that to as much as £15 million.
The star studded final saw royalty, Hollywood and Bollywood stars come together with sports stars and supermodels, it was a packed house on centre court with tickets selling for upwards of £50,000 each, one such fan who just loved the action on centre court was Amir Khan who was there with his new bride.
By Emb Hashmi
