Beer is good. No, beer is great. Benjamin Franklin famously said, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." No less than William Shakespeare wrote, "For a quart of ale is a dish for a king." Frank Sinatra had it right when he said, "I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."

You know who else is feeling good these days? The ATP Tour, which has recently found a new global sponsor, Corona Extra (hiccup).

This is (hiccup) a big deal. The men's tour lost its long-time global sponsor, Mercedes-Benz, in 2008 after a successful 12-year run. The luxury car company has since signed on to be a sponsor of the U.S. Open, while the ATP has been trying to replace a deal that paid it a reported $13 million annually in the last three years of the sponsorship. At a time when the global economy continues to teeter on the brink and the suits use nonsensical terms such as "jobless recovery," this deal is impressive: $70 million over 5½ years. It might take some time getting used to seeing the Corona Extra logo on the nets --about two-thirds of the tour's tournaments will have them by 2011 -- but if it bothers you, have a pint.

But beyond the dollars and sense, this deal is a huge step forward for the game's image. Since tennis hit the mainstream in the 1970s, it's been considered a country club sport. And despite the emergence of star players who first learned tennis in dodgy cities and war-torn neighborhoods, and despite the growth of the game in public parks, tennis continues to be saddled with its elitist image. One reason for this is that the sport's business side has a long tradition of signing up luxury brands such as Lexus, Mercedes and Rolex as sponsors. Corona, by contrast, will allow the men's tour to speak to a much larger demographic -- the highly coveted Joe Sixpacks of the world.

And it's not as though we're talking about a low-rent beer. If the ATP had signed up Pabst Blue Ribbon or Coors, the tour would deserve massive servings of ridicule and criticism. But Corona was a smart choice. It's a savvy company that practically invented Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. If it weren't for Corona, most of us wouldn't have a clue what this holiday was. Most of us still don't, but we know, like Pavlovian dogs, that we're supposed to drink copious amounts of lager on May 5. Marketing smarts like this will only help men's tennis.

Of course, there will be those teetotalers who blast the ATP for, OMG, inking a deal with a beer company. And the ATP will have to navigate restrictions that some countries have on beer sponsorships, including … Russia, where they brush their teeth with vodka. (Or so I'm told.)

The Corona deal represents two truths: beer is good, and beer is even better in a bad economy. Or as Bob Dorfman, the executive creative director at Baker Street Advertising, aptly told the New York Times, "Drinking booze and watching sports is a natural combination -- and one that seems fairly recession-proof -- so it's no surprise today to see sports leagues replacing high-ticket items with everyday products as sponsor partners."

So let's raise a pint to the ATP tour's executive chairman, Adam Helfant. He's scored his first big win as the tour's new leader. Roger Federer and the gang should buy him a round. Cheers!