Sorana Cristea is a veteran in the WTA circuit and is currently ranked no.38 in the world
Romanian Tennis star Sorana Cristea has exposed the dirty secrets of the sports marketing world. The 32-year-old has slammed sexist marketing used in tennis as she claimed that greater emphasis was placed on looks instead of success and results on the tour. Cristea revealed her personal experiences and what a ‘top marketing’ company told her before signing her as an ambassador.
In a podcast interview, Cristea said: “I remember when I signed a contract with Adidas. All the time, and considering they thought I was good looking for an athlete, they told me that it’s better to be pretty and be in the top 20 than to be ugly and be No.1.” She further claimed that she was told, “If you’re in the top 20, you’re seen everywhere, you’re there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every week, every tournament.“The former world No 21 was signed with Adidas from 2006 to 2016 before moving to New Balance.
Fans are utterly shocked by Sorana Cristea’s latest revelations. Let us take a look at some of the reactions on Twitter.
“Yes, this is a problem. Everywhere. In every segment of the society. And the fact that only women are subject of this treatment. Men are not. They can be ugly nobody cares”, wrote a user.
“From adidas’ point of view, I would bet that a gorgeous number 15 is more valuable than a plainer number 1 when it comes to selling sportswear. You can be as incredulous as you like, but a pretty model sells more clothes than a plain model”, another fan tweeted.
“So sorry you had to go through that! A sport is about how you play it. Not how you look”, wrote another fan.
“But why would they NEED to tell her that? It’s not like she’s gonna change her face or something. They knew what she looked like when they contrated her”, read another tweet.
“I would say every business on the planet, since the inception of #Capitalism would choose pretty, marketable, sexy, attractive, hot, over not. For me, I’m not in the business of persecuting the honest one, and allowing the liars to go free. Just some food for thought”, tweeted another fan.
More Tennis news
Follow our dedicated Tennis page for instant Tennis news and updates