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Tennis agent’s big week: ‘It was like a film’

For 5-year-old boutique tennis agency StarWing Sports, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships men’s final was a landmark day, and the company founder almost missed it.

Lawrence Frankopan (in hat) of StarWing Sports cheers on client Stan Wawrinka.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
StarWing has seven pro tennis clients, and two of them — Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka — squared off against WME-IMG players in the semifinals, with Wawrinka making it to, and unexpectedly winning, the championship match. His agent for a decade, Lawrence Frankopan, 38, walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium an hour before the match after a half-day journey.

Frankopan and his wife, Maria, had their first child, Sophia Ioanna Elizabeth, the Monday before the Sept. 11 Sunday final, and Frankopan had long planned to skip the Open. After Wawrinka made the final, however, Frankopan caught a flight from London at 8:30 a.m. the day of the late-afternoon New York final. But that flight was delayed four hours, and his taxi driver from JFK Airport got lost motoring to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

“As soon as I got into the taxi, he had no idea where Flushing Meadows was,” Frankopan said, adding dryly, “That was a pleasure.”

He made it in time to wish his client good luck, get asked by well-wishers why he was not home in London with his newborn daughter, and then watch Wawrinka upset world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in four sets.

“I have a baby one day, Monday, and Sunday my client is winning the U.S. Open,” he said. “It is unheard of, really. It was like a film.”

He celebrated with his client and the team at nightclub 1 Oak in Manhattan’s Chelsea after the final, executed seven hours of media appearances the following day with the Open champion, and then caught a 7 p.m. flight back to London (he flew coach).

The story of the tennis agency business in recent years has evolved into WME-IMG and everyone else. Lagardère lost dozens of clients after firing its lead tennis agent last year, and Octagon, while still active representing players (it had the women’s runner-up) focuses in tennis more on events.

That has left a big opening for boutique agencies like StarWing, which including its leader has five employees. Frankopan worked for both IMG and Lagardère, before starting his agency, which counts Chris Evert as a client. Wawrinka, a late bloomer who now has won three Grand Slam events, followed Frankopan each step of his professional journey.

So planning to miss the U.S. Open was a big deal for Frankopan.

“I am emotionally very involved in our clients. Our business will always be the individual, the relationship between me and my clients,” he said. “The idea of me not being there, yeah, of course it hurts.”

When Wawrinka made his way through the event, fighting off a match point in the third round, Frankopan said his wife told him he had worked too hard not to be in New York if his star client got to the last match of the tournament.

Speaking by phone back in London, Frankopan said he is already fielding calls from potential new sponsors. Wawrinka has a solid portfolio — global deals with Yonex, Evian and Audemars Piguet, as well as several regional ones. Now his bleary-eyed agent appears ready to add to that list.

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