When the Wimbledon draw was made Friday morning at The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Jannik Sinner was drawn against German Yannick Hanfmann in the first round.
Hanfmann, a 32-year-old who is No. 95 in the PIF ATP Rankings, was not in the middle of practice, on the physio table or glued to the draw on his phone. The former World No. 45 was a mile away from the tournament venue at the ATP Tour’s London office, participating in the new ATP Player Mentoring Programme.
The objectives of the programme are to help players learn from industry-leading experts about areas of business that interest them, expand their professional networks and support the athletes through their journey as they begin to think about life after tennis and post-career opportunities.
“I’m actually glad that we have something like this. It’s new, it’s the first time, so thank you to the ATP for actually providing us with this. I’m really excited,” Hanfmann told ATPTour.com. “I just finished the ATP Business Education Programme, which is already a lot of knowledge for us, a lot of great speakers. And now we actually are provided with someone one on one to help with us and to have a mentor to guide you a little bit with the post-career opportunities.
“I think it’s amazing, because I’m 32 thinking a little bit of what’s ahead. And life is not only tennis, but of course, it’s something that we were good at. So now trying to navigate, maybe a little bit the ways after tennis and to get into certain parts of business. And we have great speakers, great people here to help us. The mentors, all of them are excellent leaders. We’re really fortunate to be able to be in this programme.”
As of now, Hanfmann does not know what he wants to do after his career. He met with his mentor, Oli Barnett, a partner at Baringa Partners LLP, who has plenty of experience with different businesses.
“I just kind of try to learn from him and see what he did. Maybe also some of the mistakes he made, some of the experiences he has to help me maybe make my own decisions,” Hanfmann said. “And then just to learn from his experience and to hopefully find myself in a place where I’m passionate about something. Maybe it is sports, maybe it’s something else. And I think they can help shape us in this way.”
The German knows he might only have a few more years competing on the ATP Tour and is eager to learn as much as he can ahead of the next phase of his journey. Education is nothing new for Hanfmann, who attended college at the University of Southern California, where he studied international relations.
“I actually really liked going to classes, learning about new things and being involved with just something other than tennis,” Hanfmann said. “So I’m excited actually to move my brain in different direction as well to learn about new opportunities.
“We’re always involved with tennis, tennis, tennis, tennis. So it’s nice to have your brain a little bit moving off of it, have some other things that are interesting. I think it also takes maybe sometimes a little bit of pressure away from everything that’s going on these majors, especially Wimbledon, there’s always a lot of things going on, which is nice. But to be here at the ATP office, to see them for the first time, it is really nice. I’m very thankful to be part of this.”
<img src="/-/media/images/news/2024/06/29/23/26/nys-rinderknech-atp-player-mentoring-programme-2024.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="Hugo Nys and Arthur Rinderknech are being mentored by Denise Melone —Managing Director, Havas.” />
Hugo Nys and Arthur Rinderknech are being mentored by Denise Melone, Managing Director, Havas.
Hanfmann is joined by fellow players Daniel Altmaier, Zizou Bergs, Kimmer Coppejans, Taro Daniel, Alexis Galarneau, Robin Haase, Austin Krajicek, Matwe Middelkoop, Jamie Murray, Hugo Nys, Arthur Rinderknech, Jan-Lennard Struff, Michael Venus and Aleksandar Vukic in the programme.
Bergs said: “I’ve always been interested in what my dad was doing, what my grandfather was doing. So somewhere I always also feel this passion for [business and management]. And I think this programme, meeting some legends in business — especially today, I got to meet Sachin Dev Duggal — I think this is a great step up for us to see, for me personally, what are the opportunities, maybe already during and a little bit after my tennis career, to really keep building on things.
“What gets me the most happy is really to wake up with a vision and to go to sleep with it with a clear mission or a clear goal. And I really hope that after my tennis, I will also get something like that, that I really live for.”
[ATP APP]
Krajicek said: “It was important for me to participate in the ATP Player Mentoring Programme to try to expand my network. I’m always trying to learn things off the court. Unfortunately, we can’t play tennis forever. So as we go into the next phase of our life, I think it’s important to network and open up opportunities, and you never know where that may lead you. But I’m trying to learn as much as I can and educate myself so I can make that transition as smooth as possible.”
The industry-leading mentors participating in the programme are Karl Altenburg, Oli Barnett, Chris Beltran, James Cluskey, Sachin Dev Duggal, Anthony Goonetilleke, Kurt Long, Fernando Martin del Agua, Denise Melone, Ander Michelena, Eric Murciano, Peter Norris, Geoff Robinson and Stephen Twaddle.
Chris Beltran, Founder, Investor and Creator said: “What first got me about the ATP Player Mentoring Programme is it represents sort of an inflection point in the athletes’ life. It’s not the beginning of their career, when they’re excited about approaching the sport and all of the things that come with it. It’s more at a point where they can feel like it’s the end of something. And yet, a lot of them are so young, and being a startup founder myself, and running companies and things like that, you can really see where, ‘Oh, you get to an exit of a company and your whole identity is enveloped in what you do, and where do I go from there?’
“I think there’s just a really, really positive, interesting opportunity there for these athletes to figure out that there’s so much happiness and joy after the sport. Sometimes that includes the sport and involves it, other times it doesn’t. But there’s so much optimism and positivity after. And I think it’s really, really important for them to realise that. I’m just so excited to be part of that.”
Denise Melone, Managing Director, Havas, said: “I think professional athletes live and breathe their sport. And what they do on a daily basis is in the moment. I think the reason why I’m so excited about this programme, why I think it’s so important, is that there is life after tennis. And I think the ATP Player Mentor Programme ultimately is going to be able to help them prepare now for their future. It’s not to say that tennis isn’t their future, it’s just to say that the life after tennis is just as important as their life today. So if we can help them to be prepared for that, to start thinking about that early, then we’re going to be winning.”
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