It can be done: S&V

[gzhpcu]

Victor Estrella Burgos has been on the tour for 13 years and made $752,125 in prize money in all that time. I assume a player like this is running at a loss financially? Any ideas Klacr? He has averaged just under $58,000 a year. Can a player tour on that kind of money? Seems impossible, doesn't it? I wonder what the annual breakdown costs are for a guy like this?

Well, if he has no entourage, gets cheap flights and hotels, I'd think he could. No savings though...

[klacr]

Victor Estrella Burgos has been on the tour for 13 years and made $752,125 in prize money in all that time. I assume a player like this is running at a loss financially? Any ideas Klacr? He has averaged just under $58,000 a year. Can a player tour on that kind of money? Seems impossible, doesn't it? I wonder what the annual breakdown costs are for a guy like this?

I just hired a pro who played on tour in 2014. He played in US Open last year and made 2nd round of Delray Beach Doubles. Was top 200 ATP in Doubles. Only made it to 800 in singles. He told me to travel for the significant amount of weeks required on top of coaching, and the extras it totaled up to $110,000 a year. Of course, many players have sponsors that can help offset the cost. Here in Boca Raton, there are many affluent club players that think they have befriended the latest hot shot pro, only to realize just how deep the tennis talent pool goes. It's a tough gig.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

I just hired a pro who played on tour in 2014. He played in US Open last year and made 2nd round of Delray Beach Doubles. Was top 200 ATP in Doubles. Only made it to 800 in singles. He told me to travel for the significant amount of weeks required on top of coaching, and the extras it totaled up to $110,000 a year. Of course, many players have sponsors that can help offset the cost. Here in Boca Raton, there are many affluent club players that think they have befriended the latest hot shot pro, only to realize just how deep the tennis talent pool goes. It's a tough gig.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

This is the same figure I got last year from an Austrian player who now works at a tennis academy in London. He said there were no frills, just basic accommodation, travel and food. He shared a coach with another player and would also often travel without a coach. He got to 300 in the world or thereabouts. At age 27 he decided to give up. A sponsor bore all his costs but he left the tour with no profit whatsoever. As you say, it's a tough gig.

You wonder about Burgos. Did he do it all these years out love? Or is he just a rich kid anyway with nothing else to do but play tennis? I wonder what his story is? Anyway, good luck to him...whatever his story.

[klacr]

Stars have to be in total alignment, plus a little luck helps. And if all those things go your way, just remember, there is always a bigger fish.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[klacr]

Well, if you tell yourself their are bigger fish in the pond, then their will be bigger fish in the pond, and it will be imagined reality! This will result in a lot of losses which should have never happened in the first place to genetically inferior species (-:

yes. If you are inside the cage, you do not tell yourself that. Ever.
But once you are on the outside looking in, through humility and maturity you can reason with yourself that there is and will continue to be bigger fish. Someone has to carry the torch. It's part of sport. No athletes are getting any younger. It happens. But when you are the bigger fish, do whatever it takes to stay there for as long as possible.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

A lot is mental: confidence in oneself, others doubting they can beat you...

[gzhpcu]

Stakhovsky beats Thiem with serve and volley clearly in two sets in Rotterdam.

[klacr]

Stakhovsky beats Thiem with serve and volley clearly in two sets in Rotterdam.

Yes he did. Chipping and charging, serving and volleying, looks like the work of Stakhovsky's coach Fabrice Santoro. Would love to see him use that style against a Top 10 player and see how far he gets. Thiem is an exciting young player to watch but not at top 10 level...yet. Gotta put the serve and volley up against effective returning. That's the litmus test.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[GeoffWilliams]

He beat fed at wimbledon with that style.

[klacr]

Victor Estrella Burgos has been on the tour for 13 years and made $752,125 in prize money in all that time. I assume a player like this is running at a loss financially? Any ideas Klacr? He has averaged just under $58,000 a year. Can a player tour on that kind of money? Seems impossible, doesn't it? I wonder what the annual breakdown costs are for a guy like this?

Interesting article about British player Dan Cox, ATP player that gave up tennis due to financial pressures of playing on tour
http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/Bi...ail/story.html

Actually here in England now for a quick 24 hours then back across the pond to warm, sunny South Florida

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

Dan Cox

Dan has been trying for years. I saw him play when he was fourteen at the Nationals where the LTA ran a coaches course alongside the event. He was small for his age but very tenacious. Dan was brought in for a post match interview with the coaches. He was a confident boy and the coach educators felt he could do it. Amongst other questions he was asked if he felt (at that stage) whether he felt he could make it as a pro player. He said he felt he could if he worked hard and listened to his coach. I remember him saying that.

I have no doubt he did both those things. He remained small, just 5'7 and was part of the problem I believe (they say PEDs aren't fair; well nature isn't either). I haven't seen him play since he was 14 so can offer no insight other than what I have heard.

It's sad but very common. It's the other side of tennis, the side most don't see. Most failed players here end up taking a regular job if they have any qualifications, or if they haven't, it's straight into coaching.

Dan was a really down to earth kid back then. I liked him very much.

[gzhpcu]

Giles Mueller is also serving and volleying well in Rotterdam, now playing Wawrinka....

Rafter, who spent 12 seasons as a pro charging to the net, believes that serve and volley still has a place in tennis today.

“Serve and volley is a game that needs to be played at a young age,” said Rafter, who is now Australia’s Davis Cup captain. “It has a lot of intricate details to it that need to be played and played.

“To mix it up and do it every now and then can be done by anyone, but to be done all the time requires a different type of thinking.

“When the next serve and volleyer comes along he is going to be a cult hero… providing he knows what he is doing!”

Source: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Ten...ch-Rafter.aspx

[gzhpcu]

Mueller loses in two, but it is one set all between Stakhovsky and Raonic....

[gzhpcu]

Just think if a really strong, talented player were to play serve and volley...

[gzhpcu]

Am sure that if Pat Rafter were around at his best he would be way up there in the upper top ten.