Dominic Thiem's market value has increased by 50%, says manager Herwig Straka

Once you become a Grand Slam champion and break into the elite of tennis, your earnings can get to a different level altogether - not only from on-court winnings, but even from off-court endorsement deals. Dominic Thiem, the latest to join that exclusive club, would be expected to follow the same path.

As per Forbes magazine's list of top earning tennis players for the period between June 2019 and June 2020, the top 10 tennis players earned a combined $340 million, up from $312 million last year. And Herwig Straka, the manager of US Open champion Dominic Thiem, hopes the Austrian's brand value will increase after his Grand Slam breakthrough in New York.

Over the past one year, Roger Federer earned a combined $106.3 million from on-court prize money and off-court endorsement deals to top the income list of athletes all over the world. He was followed by Novak Djokovic with earnings of $44.6 million and Rafael Nadal with earnings of $40 million.

Roger Federer, the highest-earning athlete in sports for this year as per Forbes, at the2020 Australian Open.

Dominic Thiem was at No. 9 on the tennis list with earnings of $11.1 million. In the calendar year 2020 Thiem has won more than $4.7 million in prize money, while his career total earnings are nearly $27 million.

See what other tennis stars made this year's list https://t.co/afQzN0jZxm

— Forbes (@Forbes) August 28, 2020

As per Forbes, Thiem, who reached three Grand Slam finals before New York, including this year's Australian Open final, has endorsement contracts with Adidas, Babolat, Red Bull, Bank Austria, Rolex and Sky Sport.

Redbull gives @ThiemDomi wings, clearly. 🦅The No. 2 seed is only a few games from victory. #USOpen pic.twitter.com/NgtxucR75m

— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) September 3, 2020

Dominic Thiem's manager hopes his US Open win will increase his brand value

According to the Kurier website, Dominic Thiem's manager said that his US Open win will have increased his market value by 50 per cent, even though the current pandemic has made sponsors more cautious about their budgets.

"Thiem's market value has increased by 50 percent. There are companies that are investing right now. That will become apparent in the coming weeks and months, but of course it is definitely the case that it (Thiem's market value) has increased massively, also internationally," Straka said.

Straka hopes that the US Open win will reduce the gap between Dominic Thiem and the other big names ahead of him in the earnings list.

"The fact is that the tennis players are right at the front (in terms of potential earnings) and to be one of the top ten in the Forbes list among all athletes is the big goal."

Dominic Thiem himself said he does not give that much importance to prize money, but at the same time is happy to play a sport that involves such a high payoff.

"I still go into a tournament as pure as I used to, where there was no prize money. In the end I look at what I've earned, but it has no priority at all. I guess I'm happy that I play a sport where there is a lot of money involved, that's a great stroke of luck, but I don't play because of that, but because of the successes," revealed Thiem.