What is Federer these days doing besides playing tennis?

What’s it with Andy Murray?  He has unwittingly become a trendsetter of sorts on the circuit. First he brought in Ivan Lendl to coach him and it worked.  So Djokovic and Federer brought in Becker and Stefan Edberg respectively and we still don’t know it will work but older tennis stars are coming out of their woodwork thanks to Murray’s experiment.  Then he set up 77- a sports management company to look after his brother’s and hi interests on and off the court.  This initiative is in good hands, what with Simon Fuller being in charge with business strategy.  So now we have Federer who has started Team 8, also a sports management company.  In tandem with Roger’s image it is not a crude sports management company but a boutique agency that have onboard Tony Godsick- Federer’s longtime agent and another billionaire backer.  Juan Martin Del Potro and Grigor Dimitrov aka baby Fed and Sharapova’s off court interest are the first to be managed by it.

Tony Godsick who earlier worked with International Management Group that managed Federer’s interest before they parted ways said that,” We’re trying to be a boutique agency that will manage just a small stable of iconic athletes.  We’re really going to try to be selective here. Some of the other groups, they look to sign as many players as they can and hope a few of them stick and make it, and they really go after the juniors. We’re not going to.”” The agency has its headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.  Godsick also said that Team 8 had been created in part to give Federer a platform when he retires.  The smooth talking, suave Federer who looks just as much at home in the commercial world of wheeling-dealing and negotiation as with a tennis racket in his hand will be successful in his new role feels Godsick. “I can really sell Federer but nobody sells Roger better than Roger.

The other investors in this venture are Ian McKinnon and the billionaire financier Dirk Ziff, the eldest of the three brothers who started Ziff Brothers Investments in 1992 after their father, William, sold his publishing interests.

And Godsick 42, has the credentials.  He began working with the former No. 1 player Monica Seles when he was at IMG on a summer internship. He later represented Lindsay Davenport, Anna Kournikova and Tommy Haas.  Godsick is married to Mary Joe Fernandez, a former  French Open and Australian Open finalist with whom he has two young children. Godsick began working with Federer in 2005 when Federer returned to IMG after managing many of his own business interests for a brief stretch.