Tennis Player Lands Last-Minute Sponsorship Just For Playing Carlos Alcaraz At The U.S. Open

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It’s hard to imagine Li Tu was thrilled to learn he would be facing off against Carlos Alcaraz at the U.S. Open on Tuesday, but he was able to land a consolation prize after landing a sponsorship from a company that pounced on a golden opportunity to get some publicity.

Carlos Alcaraz headed into the U.S. Open as the odds-on favorite to win the tournament (although Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner were both nipping at his heels) thanks in part to his recent victory at Wimbledon, and he kicked off his quest to secure a Grand Slam in Queens for the second time on Tuesday night.

The Spaniard headed to Arthur Ashe Stadium for a first-round showdown with Li Tu that didn’t pose much of a challenge on paper, as his Australian opponent headed into the match sitting in the 188th spot on the ATP rankings (he has only secured a single tournament win on the circuit while playing solo).

Tu was able to tie things up after Alcaraz won the first set, but the 21-year-old superstar kicked things into high gear to put things away in four sets to win a match where he apparently was able to wage some psychological warfare just by taking off his jacket based on what his opponent had to say after things wrapped up.

Tu didn’t walk away empty-handed, as he earned $100,000 by simply playing in the first round of the U.S. Open after punching his ticket to the round of 128 by winning three qualifying matches.

It would also appear he received an unknown sum from Blue Owl Capital, a publicly traded asset management firm based in New York City whose logo was hastily ironed onto the shirt Tu wore while playing Alcaraz in the wake of the sponsorship deal it presumably extended after realizing it could leverage Alcaraz’s profile for its own gain.

Well played.