Sergio Tacchini - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sergio Tacchini is an Italian fashion designer of sportswear and former professional tennis player. The sportswear firm bearing his name is located in Bellinzago Novarese

Bellinzago Novarese

Bellinzago Novarese is a comune in the Province of Novara in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 90 km northeast of Turin and about 15 km north of Novara...

, Novara

Province of Novara

Novara is a province in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Novara.It has an area of 1,339 km², and a total population of 365.156 . There are 88 communes in the province.-External links:*...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

Tennis career

Sergio Tacchini became a professional tennis player at age 17 by entering the Tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

Club of Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

in 1955. In 1960 he won the title of the Italian Champion over Nicola Pietrangeli

Nicola Pietrangeli

Nicola "Nicky" Pietrangeli is a former tennis player from Italy. He is considered by many to be Italy's greatest-ever tennis champion....

. He also competed in the Davis Cup

Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...

, counting five victories in singles and one in doubles in a total of fifteen matches. He took another two Italian titles in doubles, with Pietrangeli as his partner, in 1967 and 1968.

The firm

In 1966, Sergio Tacchini founded Sandys S.p.A. which was to be renamed after Tacchini himself a few years later. The initial idea was to experiment with colours and fabrics in order to create elegant and stylish tenniswear, at a time when white dominated the players' clothes. However the project expanded to other sports such as ski

Ski

A ski is a long, flat device worn on the foot, usually attached through a boot, designed to help the wearer slide smoothly over snow. Originally intended as an aid to travel in snowy regions, they are now mainly used for recreational and sporting purposes...

, fitness

Physical fitness

Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...

, golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

and sailing

Sailing

Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...

, as well as leisure wear. The mid-eighties saw Sergio Tacchini issue the "Dallas" tracksuit.

The firm went into bankruptcy in 2007 and was purchased in 2008 by Hong Kong Chinese businessman Billy Ngok, owner of Hembly International and associate of American businessman Ron Burkle. In 2011, the firm's annual revenue were reported to be "less than €50 million (US$71 million)." A report at the time of the firm's purchase said the price was EUR27m (US$42.3m), and that Ngok "planned to open 120 shops in mainland China in the next three years." A 2011 report said the firm had "more than 100 Tacchini stores worldwide."

Sponsorships

Many athletes joined the Sergio Tacchini brand over the years. Most of them were well-known tennis players from the 1970s and 1980s such as Jimmy Connors

Jimmy Connors

James Scott "Jimmy" Connors is an American former world no. 1 tennis player....

, Vitas Gerulaitis

Vitas Gerulaitis

Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis was a Lithuanian–American professional tennis player. He is known for winning the men's singles title at one of the two Australian Open tournaments held in 1977. Gerulaitis won the tournament held in December, while Roscoe Tanner won the earlier January tournament...

, Ilie Năstase

Ilie Nastase

Ilie Nastase is a Romanian former professional tennis player, one of the world's top players of the 1970s. Năstase was the World No. 1 tennis player between 1973 and 1974 . He is one of the five players in history to win more than 100 ATP professional titles . He was inducted into the...

, Mats Wilander

Mats Wilander

Mats Wilander is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Sweden. From 1982 through 1988, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , and one Grand Slam men's doubles title...

, John McEnroe

John McEnroe

John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...

, Martina Navratilova, Sergi Bruguera

Sergi Bruguera

Sergi Bruguera i Torner is a former professional tennis player from Spain. He is best remembered for winning consecutive men's singles titles at the French Open in 1993 and 1994.-Career:...

, Pat Cash

Pat Cash

Patrick Hart "Pat" Cash is a retired Australian professional tennis player who won the men's singles title at Wimbledon in 1987.-Early career:...

, Gabriela Sabatini

Gabriela Sabatini

Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini is a former professional Argentine tennis player. She was one of the leading players on the women's circuit in the late-1980s and early-1990s...

, Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player and former world no. 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time....

, and Martina Hingis

Martina Hingis

Martina Hingis is a retired Swiss professional tennis player who spent a total of 209 weeks as World No. 1. She won five Grand Slam singles titles...

. Goran Ivanišević

Goran Ivaniševic

Goran Ivanišević is a retired Croatian professional tennis player. He is best remembered for being the only person to win the men's singles title at Wimbledon as a wildcard. He achieved this in 2001, having previously been runner-up at the championships in 1992, 1994 and 1998. Ivanišević is famous...

was sponsored by the firm when he won Wimbledon

The Championships, Wimbledon

The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...

in 2001 and Novak Đoković was sponsored when he won the Australian Open

Australian Open

The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...

for the second time, and Wimbledon, in 2011. The firm has also sponsored the 1983 Italian basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

team in the European Cup, the skiers Pirmin Zurbriggen

Pirmin Zurbriggen

Pirmin Zurbriggen is a former champion alpine ski racer. He won the overall World Cup title four times, an Olympic gold medal in 1988 in Downhill, and 9 World Championships medals ....

and Marc Girardelli

Marc Girardelli

Marc Girardelli is a former alpine ski racer, a five time World Cup overall champion who excelled in all five alpine disciplines....

, Formula 1 drivers such as Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time...

and Carlos Reutemann

Carlos Reutemann

Carlos Alberto Reutemann , nicknamed "Lole", is an Argentine former racing driver , and later a politician in his native province of Santa Fe, for the Justicialist Party....

and the golfer Ian Woosnam

Ian Woosnam

Ian Harold Woosnam OBE is a Welsh professional golfer.Nicknamed 'Woosie', 'Woosers', or the 'Wee Welshman', Woosnam was one of the "Big Five" generation of European golfers, all born within 12 months of one another, all of whom have won majors, and made Europe competitive in the Ryder Cup...

.

In the 1980s, Tacchini and Fila

Fila (company)

Fila is one of the world's largest sportswear manufacturing companies. Founded in 1911 in Italy, Fila has been owned and operated from South Korea since a takeover in 2007. Headed by chairman and CEO Yoon-Soo Yoon, Fila now has offices in 11 countries worldwide....

led in tennis sponsorship, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Nike

Nike, Inc.

Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...

and Adidas

Adidas

Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...

moved into, and took the lead in, sponsoring the top athletes in the sport.

At present, sponsored athletes include Djokovic, sailor Karine Fauconnier (Transat Jacques Vabre

Transat Jacques Vabre

The Transat Jacques Vabre is a yachting race that follows the historic coffee trading route between France and Brazil.The course was drawn up back in 1993 to follow in the wake of the clippers transporting coffee from Brazil to France. The Transat Jacques Vabre is a major date on the calendar,...

and Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race

Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race

The Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race, or STAR, is an east-to-west yacht race across the North Atlantic. When inaugurated in 1960, it was the first single-handed ocean yacht race; it is run from Plymouth to the USA, and is held every four years....

) and English cricketer Ian Bell.

Djokovic signed a 10-year deal with Tacchini in November, 2009. At the time of signing, he was fourth in the ATP

Association of Tennis Professionals

The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...

rankings and had won only one Grand Slam

Grand Slam (tennis)

The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...

title. In 2011, he became the world No. 1 and winner of 48 of 49 matches on the professional tour. Under the terms of the deal, Djokovic receives "incentive bonuses linked to tournament wins and end-of-year rankings, ... a share of all Tacchini revenue from sales in China, and [a share of] worldwide revenue from Djokovic-branded Tacchini products." After his Wimbledon victory, he traveled with Ngok and Burkle to Serbia to discuss plans for investment, including a Tacchini plant, in the Niš

Niš

Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...

area.

Present

Novak Đoković

Gilles Müller
Gilles Müller
Gilles Müller is a Luxembourgish professional tennis player. He was a US Open junior champion and is the most successful male tennis player in the history of his country...

Past

Tommy Robredo

Tommy Robredo Garcés is a Spanish professional tennis player. On 8 May 2006, he broke into the world's top ten for the first time. His highest singles ranking to date is No...

Ivo Karlović

Ivo Karlovic

Ivo Karlović is a Croatian tennis player. He has won four ATP singles titles: three in 2007 and one in 2008. Karlović is the tallest player ever on the ATP Tour at 208 cm . He is a serve-and-volleyer, Karlovic holds the fastest serve recorded in professional tennis, measured at 251 km/h ...

Steve Darcis

Steve Darcis is a male professional tennis player. He achieved his career high ranking of #44 on 12 May 2008.-2007:...

Olivier Rochus

Olivier Rochus is a Belgian tennis player. He was born in Namur, Belgium, and currently resides in Auvelais, Belgium.-Career:...

Victor Hănescu

Victor Hanescu

Victor Hănescu is a Romanian tennis player. He achieved his career high rank of no. 26 on July 6, 2009.- Professional career :...

Adrian Ungur

Adrian Ungur is a Romanian tennis player playing on the ATP Challenger Tour and member of the Romania Davis Cup Team. On August 23, 2010, he reached his highest ATP singles ranking of 122...

Marius Copil

Marius Copil is a Romanian tennis player playing on the ATP Challenger Tour and a member of the Romanian Davis Cup team. On February 7, 2011, he reached his highest ATP singles ranking to date, World No. 205 whilst in doubles his highest ranking was No...

Igor Andreev

Igor Valerievich Andreev is a Russian professional tennis player, born in Moscow.-2003:Andreev made his ATP debut in September 2003 at Bucharest, Romania as a qualifier and defeated top seed Nikolay Davydenko 7–5, 6–7, 6–0 in the first round, before losing in the next round to José Acasuso.At the...

Robert Lindstedt

Robert Lindstedt is a Swedish professional tennis player, who turned pro in 1998, and is a doubles specialist...

Dinara Safina

Dinara Mikhailovna Safina , born April 27, 1986 in Moscow, is a Russian professional tennis player of Tatar background. Safina's career high ranking is World No. 1....