Head is a leading global manufacturer of sports equipment headquartered in Kennelbach, Austria, where it employs 350 people. Howard Head, the inventor of the first metal skis, founded the company in 1950. The Head ATP ball in the picture is said to have 19 per cent better visibility than other tennis balls.

Founded in Tokyo in 1936 by Kiyoshi Ichimura, son of a poor farmer, the Ricoh Group is now a leading maker of office equipment and digital cameras with offices in 150 countries, annual earnings of €13bn and 76,150 employees. Ricoh’s German division, founded in 1978, sponsors the Masters Series Hamburg.

Gearhouse Broadcast – part of the Gravity Media Group – founded and run by CEO John Newton – has been on the road for the past six years with the Masters Series, providing cameras as well as technical teams on the ground. Tennis Properties owns the rights to the footage which it sells to over 50 broadcasters.

Wolfgang Küter founded the tennis-court building and sanitation company 25 years ago. Today he has 15 employees and has built 1,000 courts in Germany. Tespo made the clay court at the Rothenbaum Centre 20 years ago using a Dutch paste made of ground roof tiles on a foundation of volcanic rock.

Nike, named after the Greek winged goddess of victory, was founded by Phil Knight, a middle-distance runner, and Bill Bowerman, University of Oregon track coach, in 1964 with a couple of hundred dollars under the name Blue Ribbon Sports. First year sales totalled $8,000 (€6,000) compared with $15bn (€11bn) in 2006.

Wild, founded by Rudolf Wild in 1931 in Heidelberg, is a market leader in the natural food and beverage flavouring industry. Since 1956 it has owned SiSi-Werke, the firm that sponsored the Masters Series this year with its CAPS drink brand. Gatorade, Red Bull and Powerade are its rivals.

Bosch Security Systems makes fire alarms and PA, evacuation and video-security systems. It made the scoreboard, bought 20 years ago, for the stadium. Founded in 1886, the Bosch Group produces everything from washing machines to heating systems and files 3,056 technology patents a year.