Tennis’ Most Unusual Player Doesn’t Need a Sponsor—or Game Plan

“I don’t want to talk about the next round or whatever,” Adrian Mannarino said as soon as he walked into the interview room after his first-round U.S. Open win on Tuesday. “I don’t look at the draw.”

The 36-year-old Frenchman, ranked No. 42 in the world, won’t check who he’s playing until less than an hour before each match, a habit he’s maintained since before he turned pro. “If I knew who I was going to play against, I would lose a lot of energy thinking about the match,” Mannarino said. “Especially when you’re winning one match in a Slam, you want to enjoy the moment and you don’t really want to think about what’s next.”

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Most players on tour will practice specifically for their upcoming opponent, preparing a certain way if they’re a righty or a lefty, or a big server versus a baseliner. “I just think that’s bulls—,” Mannarino, a lefty, said in a press conference at the Australian Open this year.

His lack of game-planning is only the tip of the iceberg of Mannarino’s quirks as a player.

Another one is his choice of apparel. Earlier this year, Mannarino wore a plain black T-shirt with no visible logo for his fourth-round Australian Open match against Novak Djokovic in Rod Laver Arena. He had previously been sponsored by Hydrogen, an Italian sportswear brand, but then spent more than a year without a sponsor, which is highly uncommon for any player ranked inside the top 100 due to the potential earnings left on the table.

“I wouldn’t sign with any brand if I didn’t have a good relationship with the brand and if they were not doing stuff that I really feel good playing with,” Mannarino said. “I [want to] really feel comfortable on the court.”

In April, Mannarino finally signed with a French men’s clothing brand Celio. His wardrobe, though, looks pretty similar to 2023—monochromatic and unflashy—just now with the word “Celio” written on it. Despite his 2-15 record on-court since making the switch, he’s happy.

“They’re really listening to what I want,” Mannarino said. “Something pretty simple. … I’ve been playing with some Lululemon stuff for a few years, because the quality was amazing, and they’ve been able to reproduce something really similar.”

Mannarino’s actual tennis game is unusual too. Most players string their rackets with between 40 and 60 pounds of tension, but Mannarino uses about 20 pounds, effectively turning his racket into a trampoline. That helps limit wrist pain, which so many tennis players deal with, but it also suits his playing style. He hits the ball flat with short, compact swings, focusing much more on placement than power.

“He’s so annoying to play,” Frances Tiafoe said after beating Mannarino in the third round of the 2023 U.S. Open. “He’s just bunting the ball around. It’s so slow. You look at him and you’re like, ‘Man, what’s he doing?’”

Perhaps because of his peculiar technique, his results vary drastically based on the surface. He has a 48% career win rate on hard courts, but that rises to 58% on grass and falls to just 21% on clay, which tends to benefit players who hit with more spin. No active ATP player has a bigger difference in winning percentage between two surfaces (with at least 25 matches played on each).

He’s also had an atypical career arc, having his best season by far in 2023 (during his sponsor-free era). Mannarino’s three tournament wins in the second half of last year gave him three titles after his 35th birthday, more than he’d accomplished in his entire career until that point.

Consistency has been the name of his game. His 58 Grand Slam tournaments without a quarterfinals appearance is the second-most ever, but despite his lack of success in majors, he hasn’t dropped out of the ATP top 100 since June 2013—the third-longest active streak, trailing only Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov.

How has he been able to maintain his form at an age when most players decline? “I started tequila,” he joked earlier this year in a post-match interview. “That helps to not think too much.”

That explanation is consistent with the rest of his persona. He doesn’t want to think too much about his next opponent, just like he doesn’t want to think too much about what he wears.

“I’m not a superstar. I’m not trying to be anything based on what I look like,” Mannarino said. “I’m just a tennis player who likes to play tennis, and I want to feel comfortable in my clothes.”

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