PETE ZIEBRON
Roger Federer is looking forward to returning to the North American hard courts Charles Gabrean Photography
According to Forbes magazine, Roger Federer earned $14M to play 6 exhibition matches in South America last December. This February, Rafael Nadal was reportedly paid $3.2M in appearance fees to play in 2 tournaments and earned another $121,300 from his results in the events.
Last August in Cincinnati, when I asked Federer about the possibility of competing in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, he revealed that he was going to play exhibition matches in South America later in 2012: "I am excited to go to Brazil this year for the first time. Going to play some exhibitions over there in South America as a whole, and also some in Brazil. I will get a feel for that country for the first time. I'm excited about that."
When I asked Federer to elaborate on how these exhibitions were scheduled, he explained: "Well, it was something I wanted to do for quite some time, because I don't really have the opportunity in February to go play the South American swing.
For me it was always something I wanted to do, is South America before I do retire. Hopefully I can do Africa and South Africa, as well. That's important for me too emotionally.
I'm looking forward to that. I'm going to play four at least, if not five or six‑ I'm looking at it, what I can do ‑ and really take advantage of playing down there and getting to meet people, getting to play in front of so many fans of mine and of tennis, because I hear they were so excited and into tennis and into sports in general. I can't believe I have never been. This is a big moment in my life, as well."
In addition to playing Thomaz Bellucci, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tommy Haas in São Paulo, Brazil, Federer also matched up against Juan Martin del Potro twice in Buenos Aires, Argentina and once again against Tsonga in Bogota, Colombia.
Rafael Nadal is eagerly anticipated on the North American hard courts this summer after missing last year's season due to injury Charles Gabrean Photography
Meanwhile, this February, Rafael Nadal was looking forward to playing tennis in South America again for the first time since 2005 for an entirely different reason. Nadal had not played a match since his stunning loss in the 2nd round of Wimbledon last July to world #100 Lukas Rosol.
The clay courts were where Nadal wanted to return to action and the South American clay court swing provided the first opportunity to do so earlier this year. In his first tournament back in 7 months, Nadal advanced to the final in Vina del Mar, Chile, losing to Argentine Horacio Zeballos. Nadal played four matches and earned $39,000 in prize money as well as a reported $1.2M in appearance fees.
The very next week, Nadal defeated David Nalbandian in the final in São Paulo, Brazil and earned $82,300 in prize money and concurrently collected a reported $2M in appearance fees.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal each spent a little more than two weeks playing tennis on the continent of South America. Federer played six exhibition matches and earned $14M during the off-season and Nadal competed in two regular season 250 level tournaments, played eight matches, winning one of the tournaments and finishing as a finalist in the other and earned a total of $3.3M.