Maybe he lost a bet to Bruna and this is the forfeit
Makes perfect sense for me. The main suppliers will stay the same. ESN for rubbers and a the same Korean based blade manufacturer. In addition he might appear as a rising star in Paddle Tennis, which is the new sport, which JOOLA is betting in.
You might not realize it but Joola is a US company. You are right that my speculation may be off but your logic is not the reason. Matt was instrumental to signing Pitchford - is that because Pitchford is American?
Interesting. Would be nice to understand the full context but this would be a bad reason for what on the surface is a head scratcher.
Why would a personal connection be a "bad reason" for choosing a sponsorship? It happens frequently in other sports. It's essentially the crux of a recruiter's job: to make a personal connection with a target recruit and make the recruit feel more comfortable joining their team/company over another. I imagine it isn't the sole reason Hugo left Xiom, but it may be a big reason he went to Joola instead of another brand. I am curious if Joola sweetened the pot in other ways, but it isn't really our place to judge the wisdom of that decision.
It's largely because as much as I like Matt, I have never felt Joola was pushing for TT growth the way the other brands were and I feel Hugo's recent results should have gotten him a brand that was willing him to make him lead a campaign worthy of his recent results. Of course, making a good deal based on a relationship is not that negative, but Joola hasn't had any major Wow rubbers or blades, I would feel very different if this was an Andro or Donic or Tibhar or Gewo signing as those brands have a more explicit TT focus. Maybe I am just irrationally biased against Joola.Why would a personal connection be a "bad reason" for choosing a sponsorship? It happens frequently in other sports. It's essentially the crux of a recruiter's job: to make a personal connection with a target recruit and make the recruit feel more comfortable joining their team/company over another. I imagine it isn't the sole reason Hugo left Xiom, but it may be a big reason he went to Joola instead of another brand. I am curious if Joola sweetened the pot in other ways, but it isn't really our place to judge the wisdom of that decision.
Who knows, maybe Hugo wants to get into pickleball as well
If he played with this at WTT Grand Finals, then we might have to wait for Signature results lol... but more seriously, thanks for this, means we might see a heavy push behind his brand. But he has to keep the results though.
My theory is that Joola is simply desperate. Just look at the names of their new hugo rubbers. So they decided to grab the best non-Chinese tt player money could buy to revive sales and Hugo thought, life is short, the money is too good, all ESN rubbers are basically the same, the blade will be made by the same Korean manufacturer (possibly Nexy), so why not.
Very plausible theory, just need some receipts. Joola's desperation would be a good sign for table tennis to be honest, I thought they were just going through the motions and doing nothing of substance and banking on pickleball.
