WTA in Battle to Keep Sponsor

The Women's Tennis Association is fighting a losing battle to keep Sony Ericsson as its title sponsor after the mobile-telephone company issued a profits warning last month.

The joint-venture company made the WTA the richest property in women's sport in 2005 when it signed a £47m deal. With two years to run, sources say negotiations would ordinarily be in progress with regard to extending the contract but the WTA has privately conceded that it has almost no chance of persuading Sony Ericsson to renew.

There has been change at the top, with the chief executive, Miles Flint, leaving the company last November and Dee Dutta, the architect of the deal to support women's tennis, also set to quit his position as its global head of marketing. Although it is expected that the company will maintain its links with the tour championships finals in Doha and the Sony Ericsson Open tournament in the longer term, the WTA will have to go to market in search of a major new sponsor amid a worsening period of global economic downturn.

What will make the task harder for the WTA's commercial team is the lukewarm approach to tour events of its most marketable stars. Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, the Williams sisters and Jelena Jankovic all pulled out of the pre-Wimbledon warm-up tournaments in Eastbourne and Birmingham.

Advantage ATP

The anti-trust action faced by the Association of Tennis Professionals is seen as a threat to the organization's future financial viability. But even if there is an award in favor of the Hamburg Open, the complainant, sources say the ATP has an insurance policy that would mitigate damages. It is also protected by rules stipulating that if members - such as the Hamburg Open tournament - bring matters to court and lose, it is they who must pay the legal fees.

LTA uncovered

There is a new threat to the Lawn Tennis Association's hopes of procuring an umbrella sponsor for all its tournament and grassroots activity. The launch yesterday of horseracing's Sovereign Series puts a rival in the same Middle England market at a time when the LTA wants to attract £24m in blue-chip sponsorship. Racing will be looking for tens of millions of pounds from several brands, as against the £24m the LTA is seeking for its four-year offering. Simon Bazalgette, a partner in the Sovereign Series, said that "the economic picture doesn't look great at the moment". But there is plenty of work for the BBC's Mark Pougatch, who anchored yesterday's Sovereign Series launch before rushing back to cover Wimbledon.

Shell steals march on BP

London 2012 will today unveil the identity of its oil-and-gas partner. BP hired the marketing giant IMG to conduct a feasibility study of the Olympic proposition but, in a move which is likely to surprise the industry, Shell is expected to be announced today. Although an Anglo-Dutch corporation, it will not the first non-British company to be associated with the Games after EDF was made the official energy supplier.