Inside the WTA's Player Business Mentoring Programme fueling careers beyond tennis

As players continue to thrive on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, they are also cognizant of their futures after the final match point. Whether starting their own company or pursuing an off-court interest, players have endless opportunities in the business space to successfully fulfill their careers after tennis. 

With the guidance of the WTA's Player Business Mentoring Programme, players are learning to streamline that transition through exposure to successful, global business professionals in a mentor-mentee relationship. The program is offered in partnership with Give Learn, a learning and development company that helps participants enhance leadership capabilities through coaching and soft-skills programs, and ensure players make the transition with clarity, confidence, and support. 

Mentors include respected executives and professionals in the entrepreneurial, healthcare, tech, consulting and consumer spaces. 

"I always saw what a unique position players have, and the access that they have to amazing business people that really respect on their tennis," said James Cluskey, founder of Give Learn and former ATP doubles player. "When I finished playing, a successful businessperson, I asked him for advice. He said, 'Use your tennis to get in with the best business people.' Your racquet just opens you up to so many people.

"The balance for players, their priority is winning matches on the tour, but as they start to come toward the ladder stage of their career, they're thinking 'What's next? Is there something outside of tennis?' What we preach or say is as a tennis player, you're unique. You are actually running your own business, so you have a lot of the skills. You have a team, you have a coach, you're running a [profit & loss]. You win matches, you win money. You lose matches, you don't. There's so many skills there that are transferable."

Entering the second year of the program, this year's WTA's Player Business Mentoring Programme 2026-27 cohort includes active players Harriet Dart, Priscilla Hon, Fanny Stollar and Nadiia Kichenok as well as past players, former World No. 2 Anett Kontaveit and World No. 5 Lucie Safarova. Their fantastic business ideas and ventures range from a Pilates studio, an upscale laundromat, the fitness technology space, a growing jewelry business and launching a sun-stick product.

The 2025-26, which just graduated at the 2026 Wimbledon Championships featured notable players such as 2026 Wimbledon doubles champion Kristina Mladenovic, who has been exploring a future in broadcasting and building her professional profile with the help of the program.

"I'm super excited to have the opportunity to widen my skill set in the business world," Dart said. "In tennis, we learn a lot of skills, but also it's important to understand where there are transferable skills into certain industries and widen my aspects of what I potentially would love to do post tennis career.

"I'm aware that tennis is not forever, and it's important to keep your mind sharp. For me to meet all these amazing people and hear different voices, it's like a soundboard. It's amazing to be able to experience people in different fields that maybe wouldn't have the opportunity to meet otherwise."

Over the course of the next year from July 2026 to June 2027, Dart and the rest of her cohort will experience a mixture of in-person and virtual 1-on-1 sessions with their assigned mentor in addition to four group seminars that focus on improving their professional profile on LinkedIn, entrepreneurship, networking and more. Players will also have the opportunity to attend Web Summit, one of the largest tech conferences in the world that will be held in Lisbon, Portugal in November.

Dart's Give Learn mentor is Val Quinn, former Managing Director of The Coca-Cola Company Ireland who  empowers leaders through executive coaching and business strategy. Quinn is in her second year of the program as a mentor.

"Rather than suddenly it's a hard stop, you panic and you don't know what to be doing, through this process, you can actually think about all of the areas that are possibilities for you whether they're linked to tennis or something completely different," Quinn said. "You're really acknowledging that you have transferable skills, and how can you leverage those transferable skills after your professional tennis career."

At Wimbledon, Dart and Quinn met for the first time and both are thrilled about the upcoming year within the program and staying connected beyond. 

"I'm delighted," Quinn said. "Loads of ideas. Harriet's got lots of things that she's thinking about. She still has a number of years to play tennis, so she's early in her thinking and her reflections, but lots of creativity."

"I'm super excited to learn from Val, her experiences in the business world, what a powerhouse she's been and how successful she's been in business as well," Dart added. "It's an exciting time for me. It's something new, challenging and to do something other than hitting a tennis ball around. It's an amazing initiative that the WTA and ATP have partnered with Give Learn to give players the opportunity which maybe we wouldn't get otherwise."

Cluskey said he's been pleasantly surprised of the community that's been created as a result of the program in both tours, mentioning how mentors have told him of their plans to get a coffee with their player or play golf.

Mentors aren't just randomly assigned. Rather, there's purpose behind each pairing based on the player's interests and the business professional's area of expertise, and the goal is for both to mentor and the mentee to learn from each other from their experiences in their respective backgrounds. Cluskey hopes foundation that has been built in the first year of the program will continue into this year and cohorts beyond. 

"The thing that I probably didn't appreciate was going to happen is there's a real community that's been built," Cluskey said. "My passion and my energy is bringing worlds together that aren't usually together. Bringing high-performing athletes with high-performing business executives and what they can learn from each other...it's not just a one-way relationship. There's a reciprocal arrangement.

"A lot of these mentors are CEOs and really high-powered businesses executives, and the players obviously are at the top of the game. The players have a lot of respect for the business people when we present what they've done in their business career, and they want to support the players. They do it because they enjoy it, and they get closer to the game."

2026-27 Cohort & Mentor

Harriet Dart -- Val Quinn, former Managing Director, The Coca-Cola Company Ireland
Priscilla Hon -- Carlos Homedes, Co-Founder & Chief Sales Officer, Sporttips.com, former Vice President, Nike
Fanny Stollar -- Denise Melone, Chief Client Officer, Pfizer
Nadiia Kichenok -- Dierde McGinn, Founder, Rise Up
Lucie Safarova -- Stephen Twaddle
Anett Kontaveit -- TBD

2025-26 Cohort & Mentor

Kristina Mladenovic -- Denise Melone, Chief Client Officer, Pfizer
Aldila Sutjiadi -- Jemima Bird, Founder, Hello Finch
Ingrid Neel -- Chris Beltran, Tech Investor & Entrepreneur
Petra Martic -- Ian Baggett, Founder, Adderstone Group
Jill Craybas -- Val Quinn, former Managing Director of The Coca-Cola Company Ireland
Anna Tatiashvili -- Paul Dunne, Co-Founder, B1G1