Bill Ackman, the 59-year-old American billionaire hedge fund manager who is the founder and chief executive of Pershing Square Capital Management, is a well-known name in the tennis world. He has amassed a fortune by recognizing potential. Talking about his love for tennis, in 2014, he met a 16-year-old American tennis phenom, and his name was Frances Tiafoe. Ackman was then the man who supported Tiafoe in launching his tennis career. Reacting to that, Coco Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, had said that there’s “a huge, huge hedge fund guy” backing Tiafoe. Seeing his love for the sport makes us wonder: Has Ackman ever tried his hand at the sport, though?
Well, Bill Ackman is heavily involved in the tennis community on Wall Street. He played the sport in high school at Horace Greeley in the 1980s, but he didn’t play in college. However, he’s often seen taking part in charity tournaments, and he also donates a significant amount of money to various causes. In 2015, Ackman won the Finance Cup, an amateur tournament whose participants were bankers and investment professionals. Interestingly, this year we saw Bill Ackman, who literally has no official tournament experience on record, being awarded a wildcard entry in the Hall of Fame Open alongside tennis stars like Jack Sock.
Reacting to the chance of teaming up with Sock, Ackman said, “I’ve never met Jack Sock.” The duo was sponsored by Nike. Talking about this opportunity, he also added, “I’m going to try to have a lot of fun, we’ll do everything we can to win and put on a good show. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience—unless we win.” However, he and Sock lost that match to Oman Jasika and Bernar Tomic by 6-1,7-5. Following his poor display of tennis, the decision to add a billionaire to the tournament led to a wave of criticism towards the Hall of Fame in the tennis community. Then three days later, we saw Ackman posting a lengthy tweet in which he defended the Hall of Fame, criticized his own play, and pledged to set up a staggering $10 M endowment he’d manage, giving the Hall 10% of the principal every year. However, as per the latest news, the International Tennis Hall of Fame has declined the $10 million donation by Bill Ackman.
This comes shortly after the billionaire’s (Bill Ackman’s net worth: $9.4 B) controversial wildcard selection and performance at the Hall of Fame Open ATP Challenger professional tennis tournament, which took place almost a week ago. Renowned tennis journalist Jon Wertheim shared this news on his X handle, saying, “I’m told @TennisHalloFame board has declined the (sizable) donation Bill Ackman offered over the weekend…“
I’m told @TennisHalloFame board has declined the (sizable) donation Bill Ackman offered over the weekend…
— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) July 16, 2025
As per the reports, in a letter obtained by Front Office Sports, the leadership of the International Tennis Hall of Fame expressed regret about the decision to invite Bill Ackman to compete in the match alongside Jack Sock. “In hindsight, we would not make this decision again,” they added, referring to Ackman’s wild-card entry. How did Ackman react to this, and what did the tennis world have to say about Ackman’s participation in the event?
Tennis legends, Andy Roddick and Martina Navratilova’s react to the Hall of Fame’s bizarre decision
Billionaire Bill Ackman, the CEO of New York City-based hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, received several backlashes in the tennis world after the match. For example, American tennis legend, Andy Roddick, said, “This was a total miss. Now, the job of the Hall of Fame is to preserve and celebrate excellence in our sport. This was the biggest joke I’ve ever watched in professional tennis.” He claimed that the match was beneath the Hall of Fame, and also called it a “disaster.”
Even Martina Navratilova gave her reactions on the same saying, “Apparently, you can buy yourself a wild card. Oh, to have the confidence….” Renowned journalist Glenn Greenwald claimed that Bill Ackman used his vast wealth to worm his way into a professional ATP-sanctioned tennis tournament at the Hall of Fame at the age of 59. However, representatives from the International Hall of Fame debunked all these rumors, claiming there was no money exchanged in return for the wild card.
Seeing these severe criticisms in the tennis world, Ackman came up with a tweet saying, “While I don’t mind and do deserve the ridicule about my poor play at the @TennisHalloFame, the Tennis Hall of Fame itself has received a lot of totally unfair criticism.” He claimed that the sole purpose of his getting the wildcard was to increase interest in the HOF’s challenger events. Ackman also highlighted how almost ten days ago, he and Richey Reneberg played quite well, reaching the semifinals of a tournament, and spoke a few things to reveal the real reasons behind his poor performance in this match.
But in that same tweet, when he announced that $10 million endowment, he also threw a challenge to Andy Roddick to bring up an amateur partner of his choice to play doubles on his court. What was Ackman’s reaction to his $10 million rejection by the Hall of Fame, though?
Well, he came up with yet another long tweet saying, “In a world where no good deed goes unpunished, I will do my best to attempt another good deed for the sport of tennis, now that the @TennisHalloFame has rejected our donation apparently for ‘optics,’ whatever that means.” He announced that he will now be providing the $10 million endowment to JTCC. What are your thoughts surrounding these latest developments featuring Bill Ackman and the Hall of Fame?
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