A new sponsorship deal between the Women’s Tennis Association and car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz is set to break all records for women’s sport.

Speaking at an unveiling ceremony attended by Roger Federer and Billie Jean King, American No 1 Coco Gauff said that the deal – which is thought to be worth £37.5m per annum for up to 10 years – had proved that “the dreams of young girls in sports are worth investing in”.

The news comes only days after a leaving party for outgoing WTA chief executive Steve Simon and represents an encouraging new start for the tour.

Simon’s successor, the experienced American sports executive Valerie Camillo, is set to start work next week, and should enjoy more room on her budget sheet than her predecessor did during the WTA’s cash-strapped recent seasons.

For an organisation whose revenues only just exceed £100m per year, a sponsorship deal of this size should open up significant opportunities.

Driving the future of tennis 🤩

We're thrilled to announce that Mercedes-Benz is the new Premier Partner and Exclusive Automotive Partner of the WTA Tour, starting in 2026 🤝 pic.twitter.com/vql7UIxQaB

— wta (@WTA) December 10, 2025

For purposes of comparison, the BBC reported that the National Women’s Soccer League in America sold a four-year media package for £180m in 2023, while Nike has ploughed £262m into a number of women’s football leagues.

The WTA’s previous naming-rights deal with American healthcare provider Hologic, struck in 2022, landed it only £64m across four years, and had to be frontloaded so that £40m was payable at once to help with cash flow.

A few months after that Hologic deal was secured – ending 12 years without a title sponsor since the abdication of Sony Ericsson in 2010 – the WTA found itself still so close to the red that it sold off 20 per cent of its commercial operation to private equity firm CVC in return for another £120m of ready funds.

Few have been impressed with the WTA’s decision-making processes in recent years. In 2021, Simon tried to claim the moral high ground by announcing an ethical boycott of China in the wake of Peng Shuai’s claims of sexual coercion, only to climb down humiliatingly less than 18 months later.

The tour has also earned much criticism for its decision to play its Finals event in Saudi Arabia for the last two seasons, despite the many everyday restrictions imposed on women in that country.

Within the locker room, meanwhile, a strong faction has protested about the growth of two-week Masters events and the high number of mandatory tournaments, with players such as Iga Swiatek and Daria Kasatkina complaining of burnout.

At least the WTA can now wipe the slate clean to some extent under Camillo, and set off into a new era, especially when it comes to the Peng Shuai embarrassment which so tarnished the later days of Simon’s reign.

Its future financial security will be enhanced by the Mercedes-Benz investment, which continues a global trend for value growth in women’s sport.

At the same time, work continues to unite the WTA’s commercial arm – WTA Ventures – with the equivalent part of the men’s tour, thus laying the foundation for a more general unification of men’s and women’s tennis in the future.

Incomes for players continue to rise, even if there is some way to go before the wider goal of equal prize money across the tours is to be achieved.

Two and a half years ago, Simon announced an intention to reach prize money equality at the seven combined Masters events by 2027 and the non-combined events by 2033.

However, in that same season of 2023, Telegraph Sport revealed that the WTA was being forced to prop up prize money out of its own pockets, spending almost £30m per annum of its revenues on player remuneration because tournaments valued the male players so much more highly than female ones.

The ATP Tour continues to generate around twice as much money in revenues as the WTA, but high earners such as Gauff and Elena Rybakina – who took home £4m for winning in Riyadh last month – are now earning sums that King could hardly have dreamed of when she launched the original tour just over half a century ago.

Power. Precision. Play without limits. We're proud to welcome world-class tennis player Coco Gauff to the Mercedes-Benz family as a new global brand ambassador.#MercedesBenz#tennispic.twitter.com/3BC2xTI5kv

— Mercedes-Benz USAㅤ (@MercedesBenzUSA) December 8, 2025

“For a long time, women’s sports were maybe pushed to the side or maybe not seen in the ways our male counterparts were,” said Gauff, who recently topped the Sportico list of the best-paid female athletes for the third straight year, having earned an estimated £23m in 2025.

“For Mercedes-Benz to do this, and also, not only invest in our sport, but also invest in someone like me – a woman of colour – is super inspiring.”