Sponsors see WTA Tour as good fit despite Serena outburst

LONDON, (Reuters) – Sony Ericsson’s relationship  with the WTA Tour remained positive despite Serena Williams’s  foul-mouthed outburst at the U.S. Open in September, the tour  sponsors have said.

The 28-year-old American was put on probation for two years  and handed a record fine after an expletive-laden outburst at a  lineswoman in New York culminating in a penalty point that  handed victory to Kim Clijsters in their semi-final.

“Any sport is competitive and incidents happen with players  in any sport,” Calum MacDougall, the company’s director of  global marketing partnerships, told Reuters.

“I think if you have a relationship like we have with the  WTA, over a long time elements like this will happen because of  the nature of sport.”

Sony Ericsson’s <6758.T> six-year, $88 million naming  rights agreement runs until the end of the 2010 season.

“Overall the players have been very supportive of our  sponsorship and they have been very engaging,” he said.

“We haven’t taken a view on whether we’ll continue or not  but it is something we need to be looking at in the coming  months.

“It would be pre-emptive of me to say anything. There’s a  lot of analysis we need to do and understand the value we’ve  got so far from the potential value we can have moving  forward.”

MacDougall said there was no temptation to switch focus to  the men’s game after the contrasting fortunes of the two Tours’  end-of-season showpieces.

The men’s ATP Tour finals played out to capacity crowds at  London’s O2 Arena while the women’s season ender in Doha, for  which Sony Ericsson also holds the naming rights, had  comparatively sparse crowds.

“Not particularly,” MacDougall responded when asked if  there was a temptation to buy into the insatiable rivalries  building up between Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray,  Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro in the men’s game.

“A lot of the focus is the competitiveness between Federer  and Nadal and the other guys coming up. The exciting part about  the women’s game is that it’s very open.

“There’s a range of players who can potentially win any  given tournament and in sporting terms what’s really  interesting is the unpredictability and it’s actually quite  compelling in a way.”