Tara Moore, the second lowest ranked player in the main draw of the Women’s Singles at Wimbledon has secured a sponsorship first by getting her ‘fist pump’ celebration sponsored by Three UK.
Ranked number five in Britain and 250 in the world, each pump from Moore will raise a humble enough £3 for the Rally for Bally Charity in honour of Elena Baltacha, the tennis player who died from cancer last month aged only 30.
So far the total has climbed to £200, a very small price to pay for the commentary and coverage the initiative has garnered at one of the sporting and social highlights of the year.
She will be back again today having had to suspend her match last night poised at one set all against Vera Zvonereva.
New phone
The company entered into the deal to promote a new LG phone being launched on Friday that has some features that can be called up using hand gestures.
Spokesperson for Three Tom Malleschitz said: “We hope that by officially sponsoring Tara’s fist pump at this year’s tournament it will spur her on to dig deep and fight her way to win every fist-pumping point.”
Three has now said it will add the same donation for each fist pump during the Men’s and Women’s finals.
It’s an imaginative approach, using a player at the less well known end of the scale but who could become a British icon and is also creating waves in her native Hong Kong where Three parent company Hutchison Whampoa has its own home base.
Three also sponsors the Irish soccer team and will take over the Irish Rugby team later this year, at least until 2016. One can imagine players pondering their own celebration moments…
Celebration Sponsorship a first at Wimbledon
