Making a living on the tour...

[stotty]

How high up the rankings does a male player have to be to make a living? Let's take SERGIY STAKHOVSKY, the player currently ranked 100 in the world and see how he stacks up. His earnings so far this year are $72,249. His career earnings over the last ten years are $2,629,324 (includes doubles and singles). This puts his average annual earnings over tens years at £262,324. Not bad.

But I wonder what his expenses are? What do his expenses total in dollars? If he gets any additional sponsorship money on top of his earnings? Then of course there is tax to pay.

Overall my question would be at which position in the rankings does a male player start to make a decent living? A decent living being a ball park figure of say $150,000 per year...after expenses and taxes.

Anyone in the forum know anything about the subject….Geoff, tennis_chiro, 10splayer, John, stroke….anyone?

[gokulms]

How high up the rankings does a male player have to be to make a living? Let's take SERGIY STAKHOVSKY, the player currently ranked 100 in the world. His earnings so far this year are $72,249. His career earnings over the last ten years are $2,629,324 (includes doubles and singles). This puts his average annual earnings over tens years at £262,324. Not bad.

But I wonder what his expenses are? What do his expenses total in dollars? If he gets any additional sponsorship money on top of his earnings? Then of course there is tax to pay.

Overall my question would be at which position in the rankings does a male player start to make a decent living? A decent living being a ball park figure of say $150,000 per year...after expenses and taxes.

Anyone in the forum know anything about the subject….Geoff, tennis_chiro, 10splayer, John, stroke….anyone?

Stotty, Patrick Mcanroe USTA published a report in 2010 and came up with a ranking of 141 ATP and 122 WTA to just break even on the expenses with prize money. ( no endorsement money included ). the expenses he came up with is $149,000/yr.

[GeoffWilliams]

lOOK up the 142nd top businessman's earnings over a year. It's multi millions. Or the top actor/musician/artist. Every profession is easier to make it in than tennis.

[stotty]

Interesting...

Stotty, Patrick Mcanroe USTA published a report in 2010 and came up with a ranking of 141 ATP and 122 WTA to just break even on the expenses with prize money. ( no endorsement money included ). the expenses he came up with is $149,000/yr.

This would mean out of an average annual fee of $262,324 SERGIY STAKHOVSKY would take home $113,900 a year. After taxes over here (the UK) he would then be left with around $80,000.

He better start studying for life after tennis by the look of it.

[julian1]

To be sarcastic

How high up the rankings does a male player have to be to make a living? Let's take SERGIY STAKHOVSKY, the player currently ranked 100 in the world. His earnings so far this year are $72,249. His career earnings over the last ten years are $2,629,324 (includes doubles and singles). This puts his average annual earnings over tens years at £262,324. Not bad.

But I wonder what his expenses are? What do his expenses total in dollars? If he gets any additional sponsorship money on top of his earnings? Then of course there is tax to pay.

Overall my question would be at which position in the rankings does a male player start to make a decent living? A decent living being a ball park figure of say $150,000 per year...after expenses and taxes.

Anyone in the forum know anything about the subject….Geoff, tennis_chiro, 10splayer, John, stroke….anyone?

British tax tennis players (foreigner players as well) THE MOST

[stotty]

Julian

Whatever country you come from, you won't have made enough to retire on at the end of a career if we take SERGIY STAKHOVSKY as an example. And SERGIY STAKHOVSKY wasn't always ranked 100 in the world of course. He had a stint in 2010 and 2011 where he was in the ranked in the 30's and 40's. He's had spells well outside the top 100 as well...so a fluctuating career, as I guess is any tennis player's career is.

I imagine a player, over a ten-year period, would need to average a top 50 ranking to come away from the tour with a good nest egg when they hit thirty. That's just my guess. If that's the case, tennis is a bloody hard game and players must be doing it for the same love as players were back in the 50's and 60's. Things seemed to have changed very little....for the journeymen at least.

[don_budge]

Al Kaline...1960's old school mentality

And some more interesting factoids posted recently on the Tenniswarehouse message boards:

The 100th ranked NBA player (by salary) made $6,665,000!!!!!!

(source: http://espn.go.com/nba/salaries/_/page/3 )

The 100th Ranked Golfer (by salary) made:$1,009,769.40

(source: http://espn.go.com/golf/moneylist/_/page/2/year/2012 )

The average Baseball player made: $3.4 million
-Keep in mind, there are over 1000 baseball players

(source: http://work.chron.com/average-salary...ayer-8344.html )

Compare these #s to the career prize money of the 100th ranked tennis player: $2,629,324

Once upon a time in America there was a professional baseball player named Al Kaline. Al Kaline was a wonderful athlete and surprise of surprises...he was definitely old school. My father and I used to go to Detroit Tiger baseball games in the mid and late 1960's games down at the old Tiger Stadium that has since been replaced by Comerica Park.

We use to sit in the right field upper deck and we would get to the old ball park early enough to watch the players taking their pregame ritual warmup. We specifically sat in the place that we did because Al Kaline was a right fielder. Sitting there as a young boy and listening to my father's quiet wisdom while watching Al Kaline throw strikes to home plate from way out in right field gave me an appreciation of the level of his excellence. His worthiness.

The Detroit Tiger organization offered Al Kaline roundabouts 1970 a contract that would have been worth 100,000 dollars...but he turned it down to sign for 99,000 dollars. You know why? It was believed that he didn't want his teammates to feel that he was in another class than them. He turned down six digits in order not to offend his teammates out of a sense of loyalty to the organization. Compared to todays million dollar steroid droid crybabies what is that sort of attitude worth...priceless in my book. That was the end of an era...usher in modern day sports. Does anyone know what the lesson of the Greek Olympics were in relation to the demise of their civilization?

Back in those days a school teacher or a police officer might have a yearly salary of 10,000 dollars so the best professional athletes were making approximately ten times what the average professional in the working class was making. Nowadays...just look around you. All of those knuckleheads being paid a king's ransom to "entertain" you. Why is that? They are being paid to distract you from what the reality of the situation is. What does that mean?

Tennis players have traditionally been the lower echelon paid even though they go out on the field by themselves and make or break it all by their lonesome. It doesn't seem fair does it? No surprise.

[klacr]

Once upon a time in America there was a professional baseball player named Al Kaline. Al Kaline was a wonderful athlete and surprise of surprises...he was definitely old school. My father and I used to go to Detroit Tiger baseball games in the mid and late 1960's games down at the old Tiger Stadium that has since been replaced by Comerica Park.
:

Tiger Stadium. One of a kind. On the corner of Michigan Ave. and Trumbull Ave. Good times. Comerica Park just isn't the same.

Moving on....

The conversation of making a living on the tour is a good one.

I agree that the 150 ranking spot seems to be watermark.
Another source of income for some of the lower ranked players-outside top 30 are exhibitions and league tennis. Many players, especially in November/December, tennis' "off-season" will play exhibitions for nominal fees. They also supplement their pro earnings by playing professional leagues, such as World Team Tennis (USA), the Bundesliga (Germany), and the Italian, Swiss and Czech Leagues. These pro leagues can be a very high level These guys typically get paid about $20,000 for less than 10 weeks of play, and accommodation is also provided by the clubs. Some of these leagues and teams are also pretty stacked with great players as well. For example, The Prostejov, Czech Republic team featured Radwanska, Kvitova, Safarova, Cetkovska, Berdych, Kohlschreiber, Seppi, Mayer, Hajek, Nieminen.

If you are outside the top 150, it takes some help from family, friends, or local coaches. Tour players and coaches I've hit with, certified, mentored and befriended have all expressed that the goal was 150 in order to make a respectable living, obviously with the goal of moving up even higher but more than likely having some skills to fall back on as the nest egg will not allow retirement while in your 30's.

With all that said...Tennis is a very tough sport to make a living at if you trying to compete at the highest level.


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[DougEng]

Tiger Stadium. One of a kind. On the corner of Michigan Ave. and Trumbull Ave. Good times. Comerica Park just isn't the same.

Moving on....

The conversation of making a living on the tour is a good one.

I agree that the 150 ranking spot seems to be watermark.
Another source of income for some of the lower ranked players-outside top 30 are exhibitions and league tennis. Many players, especially in November/December, tennis' "off-season" will play exhibitions for nominal fees. They also supplement their pro earnings by playing professional leagues, such as World Team Tennis (USA), the Bundesliga (Germany), and the Italian, Swiss and Czech Leagues. These pro leagues can be a very high level These guys typically get paid about $20,000 for less than 10 weeks of play, and accommodation is also provided by the clubs. Some of these leagues and teams are also pretty stacked with great players as well. For example, The Prostejov, Czech Republic team featured Radwanska, Kvitova, Safarova, Cetkovska, Berdych, Kohlschreiber, Seppi, Mayer, Hajek, Nieminen.

If you are outside the top 150, it takes some help from family, friends, or local coaches. Tour players and coaches I've hit with, certified, mentored and befriended have all expressed that the goal was 150 in order to make a respectable living, obviously with the goal of moving up even higher but more than likely having some skills to fall back on as the nest egg will not allow retirement while in your 30's.

With all that said...Tennis is a very tough sport to make a living at if you trying to compete at the highest level.


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Kyle hits the bull's eye again. It's been generally the top 150 ATP and almost the same for WTA for the past 10-15 years. In doubles, top 40-50.

However, as Julian noted, it does depend on other factors. Expenses may be covered by NGB or sponsors. Then tax system is a factor and where you need to travel. For example, South American, Australian and Asian players are generally at disadvantage with their base for travel expenses. Some players can survive in Europe well (clay courters) but then many European countries have high taxes and hence, European stars prefer changing residence to Monaco or the US.

Finally, if you are ranked 119 but the top player in India, you might get much more NGB or regional sponsorship. For example, Nike might be interested in sponsoring a very good player who makes the SF at a major from China or India where there's lots of consumers. And a player ranked 55 on the tour and never making a splash at a big ball could do well if he or she is from let's say Israel or Portugal since they would have first choice at many sponsorships.

You have the Ernest Gulbis...with wealthy backings...I know a few...with $30-50 K per year of backing to be ranked like 1000 on the ATP or WTA Tour.

Then you have the Paul Goldsteins...who find a way to make it. Paul kept the USTA Circuit as his 'hard drive backup' for prize money and although he was generally ranked 100-200, he won 26 events and lots of pocket change. Mike Russell could also fall in that category.

On a trivia note:
Paul went to school at Sidwell Friends in DC (then Stanford)...hmmm..I know quite a few people who went there. Not to mention the Obama girls (whom I don't know).

Best,
Doug

P.S. Having fun posting lately....