Wimbledon 2014: Rafael Nadal wins the All Social Championships

As the All England Tennis Championships got underway at Wimbledon on Monday, Rafael Nadal claimed an early victory in the All Social Championships – a competition between the top male and female stars to find the best player in social media.

With stiff competition from his on-court rivals Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, as well as Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, Nadal’s expert use of social media saw him crowned king of the digital court.

International sports marketing agency, Fast Track, created four rounds of social media match-ups between the players, who competed for biggest audience growth, engagement and frequency of tweeting. Uniquely, it meant male and female players went head-to-head with no disadvantages, resulting in Victoria Azarenka outclassing Stan Wawrinka, and an easy win for Sharapova over David Ferrer in Facebook audience growth.

With 20.4 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, Nadal is the most followed tennis player in the world, growing at a rate of over 8,000 a day.

Head of Digital at Fast Track, Graeme Harrison, said: “The use of social media by the world’s top tennis stars is impressively high. We wanted to look at not just who had the largest following, but who “gets it” the most. Rafael Nadal doesn’t just have the most followers, he does more to engage them online too, with insights via imagery, and comment on his interests away from tennis.

“This isn’t just good news for his fans, but for ‘Brand Nadal’ as a whole. He might be no.2 seed at Wimbledon but he takes the All Social Championships hands down.”