Top 10 Tennis Athletes – March 2019

Tennis Players with the Highest Social Interactions Among Fans

Tennis players from around the world were kept busy with the number of tournaments and matches that occurred in March. From the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco to the Miami Open in Florida, elite tennis players ensured that their successes were documented on social media, with the hopes of creating engaging content for their fans. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Maria Sharapova secured the top three spots for most social interactions among fans in March 2019. Hookit analyzed the total number of interactions each of the top 10 tennis players received via their social media channels and created valuable insights for reasons behind a few of the players’ rankings.

Key Insights

Roger Federer Aces First Position

With 27.4M followers across his social media accounts, Federer utilized his massive social following and jumped ten spots to land himself in the first place on the top ten list for social interactions. Part of this was due to the tennis star increasing the number of posts on social media by nearly threefold from February to March. The short clip of Federer holding the Miami Open trophy posted to Facebook collected 97k likes, 7k comments, and 5.7k shares, resulting in 7% of his total 1.5M interactions across all posts on Facebook. Federer’s win from the Miami Open marked the 101st title that the Swiss tennis athlete took home.

Bianca Vanessa Andreescu Rallies Forty-Seven Spots to Ninth Position

Bianca Andreescu experienced a massive jump in the social interactions rankings from her win at the BNP Paribas Open. The 18-year-old became the youngest player since Serena Williams, and the first-ever wild card, to win the BNP Paribas Open.
Andreescu posted on Instagram after being crowned champion, which received over 30k interactions, the most engagement among all of her social media posts in March. The Canadian-born tennis player also experienced an increase in 89.4k followers on social media over the month due to her performance. Most of Andreescu’s followers interacted with her on Instagram, which accounted for 80% of the total 274.4k social interactions.

Maria Sharapova Breaks Lead to Land at Third Position

Sharapova falls slightly from being the first spot on the top 10 list for social interactions in February to the third spot in March. This fall in rankings was because the tennis star posted less frequently to social media in the latter month. Her 27 posts on personal social media accounts collected 972.6k interactions, with 93% of those social engagements coming from Instagram.
In late February, Sharapova notified fans, via Instagram stories, that she recently had undergone shoulder surgery and was forced to withdraw from the Miami Open that was set on March 18-31st. After breaking the news to her fans, Sharapova posted to Instagram a few days later of her back in the gym, which was the most engaging post from her followers in March. That Instagram post collected over 417k interactions, 46% of the total interactions from the social media platform.

The Wrap Up

Participating in tournaments is a way for tennis players to create valuable content that is engaging with their fans and sponsors. By posting to social media often and creating an environment that is engaging with their fans, tennis players can help increase the value of their brand sponsors. These social interactions can be instrumental for brands that are sponsoring those top athletes and looking to increase their brand value. By analyzing the top-ranked tennis athletes according to social interactions, brands can create valuable insights when looking for new partnerships that drive value.
Note: All data is from official Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram Business accounts. Any personal Instagram account data is not included in these rankings.

Written by Jeremy Parker
Jeremy is a second-year MBA candidate at the Rady School of Management with extensive data-analytics, social media strategy, and content marketing experience. As a marketing intern for Hookit, he has learned valuable skills to help analyze athlete engagement and create insights on driving brand value. To connect further, please refer to his LinkedIn.
 

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