Sloane Stephens, who was injured for 11 months before making a stunning summer comeback capped by the U.S. Open title, wasn’t the only one with a great story: Her agent John Tobias also had his own comeback. Tobias, 40, was fired in October 2015 from Lagardère, sparking an exodus of other agents and players, including Stephens. Tobias signed a non-compete that kept him from the business until Jan. 1 of this year, when TLA Worldwide, with no tennis representation expertise, hired him. Now thanks to Tobias, a former point guard at UC San Diego, TLA represents Open quarterfinalist Sam Querrey, Stephens and doubles team the Bryan Brothers.
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The popularity of tennis in the U.S. is going to increase quite a bit due to this next generation of talent that is coming up.”
On who Stephens compares to? As far as marketability she is as marketable as any client I have ever worked with, including Andy Roddick, including the Bryans and including the likes of Caroline Wozniacki. … Sloane, she has some unique characteristics on the court; obviously she is an amazing tennis player, but she is an amazing athlete, just physically gifted, probably one of the most — if not the most — physically gifted athletes on the tour right now. And then off the court she has got a smile that will light up the room, she is a really attractive young lady, obviously African-American, and being from a big market like the United States really bodes well for her from a marketing standpoint.
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| Photo: COURTESY OF JOHN TOBIAS |
You also represent Genie Bouchard, who was once the up and comer in women’s tennis and now has fallen off. What is her marketability? I have never represented a player who is impacted less by results, whose business is impacted less by results. I am sure at some point there will be a fall-off if she doesn’t come back and reassert herself as one of the top players, but right now her business is not all that negatively impacted because she is from a large market in Canada that does not have a whole lot of female ambassadors. … We just renewed with Rogers, we just renewed with Coke. Those are big brands.
In your time away, Stephens was with WME-IMG; why did she make a switch again? We didn’t really talk about one company versus the other, I think it was just like a comfort level. I started working with Sloane (who is 24) when she was 16, 17 years old. So, I had the edge on IMG in the sense that I had worked with her and her family for a long time already and we had a good, close personal friendship and professional relationship. I don’t think it was anything IMG did or did not do, I think it was more a matter I was back being able to represent talent and I had a previous relationship with Sloane and we decided to give it another try.
Did you expect to represent a Slam winner in your first year back? To be very honest, no. I knew that I was fortunate enough to have a few clients who might have the opportunity to have a successful year, but I did not honestly believe in year one I would have a client win a Grand Slam.
— Daniel Kaplan
