Making a Living as a Tennis Player

[stotty]

I became curious about how high a player needs to be up the rankings to make a living. I know a guy in the 200's who can't make ends meet. I also meet a player 10 years ago who also hovered between the 200's and 300's for 7 years. In the end he quit trying to make it as a tennis player but during those 7 years ran up losses of around $500,000. His sponsor picked up the tab.

I came across this article about what a player can expect to earn on the tour. It's revealing. You really need to be within the 104 players in the world to have a chance to make real money. It's clearly not easy making a living as a tennis player.

https://mytennishq.com/how-much-do-tennis-players-make-the-ugly-truth/

[johnyandell]

I worked with a player years ago who finally broke into the top 100. His mom was helping him pay his expenses...

[stotty]

I wonder if a player comes to accept he is a journeyman whether they might be able to turn their attention purely to making a living. Does making the top 104 mean automatic entry into doubles and mixed events in slams or do players have to build up doubles ranking points to be eligible? You see if a player can enter the all the events in each of the four slams and get through a round in singles double and mixed you would think that would be a decent living if the rest of the year they could break even. I have no idea but just wondered if there is a way to work it so if a journeyman could survive 10 years on tour, whether he could leave with a nest egg.

Getting through the 1st round in the singles, doubles and mixed at the Australian Open would gross $211,000. I assume the other slams would pay similar. So that's $844,000 a year minus tax and expenses. Doesn't seem too bad if the player could break even or make a slim profit throughout the rest of the year. Where's Klacr these days when you need him for answers on this kind of stuff...

[jimlosaltos]

This article dates back to 2015, but gives some sense of the expense long before having any potential to earn an income.

Nick Saviano: What it Costs to Raise a Future Tennis Pro


Saviano describes what it takes, financially, to raise a tennis prodigy in a feature article in, of all places, Departures Magazine. "To develop a world-class tennis player costs tennis of thousands of dollars a year," Saviano says. Training and travel gets incrementally more expensive as a junior player gets older. Saviano estimates that at 11 years old -- Julia-Rose's age (a player featured in the article) -- it might cost $20,000 annually and increase at a rate of $5,000 to $10,00 a year. This means by the time a kid first picks up a racket to the time that kid turns pro, "it costs a minimum of a quarter-million dollars," saviano says.

And: "The elite world comes with a hefty price tag. At IMG, for example, it costs $71,400 per year for a tennis player to enroll full-time."

{Can't find the original now that they've redone their web site: http://www.departures.com/ )

[jimlosaltos]

Then there is the route of finding "Sponsors". Here's something crudely translated from a Russian site about Karatsev's struggles in early days on the tour.
from Sports.Ru blog, early 2021.


Karatsev at the Kuprin Academy

Borrowing tennis shoes from the stands, 20% interest rates on loans, and Putin's bodyguards.


Great piece describing the difficulties Karatsev faced as a young boy trying to become an ATP player from a poor country, as told by his Junior tennis coach Alexander Kuprin from a Russian blog. I'm quoting or interpreting from a machine translation.

Kuprin describes building tennis courts from small sea shells, attempting to create a small tennis academy when Karatsev was a 14 yo boy, AK learning how to tie borrowed sneakers. At one match, a follower in the stands took off his shoes and gave them to Karatsev to wear. Kuprin and another supporter alternated eating by sharing a hotel bracelet. Kuprin supported his academy by producing movies in far flung Russian cities.

About Karatsev not having a clothing sponsor, "You get into the qualification of "Grand Slam" - they tell you: dude, here's a bag of things for six months, so don't wash too much. So you save. Here Aslan at the Australian Open played in old clothes, until someone gave him a T-shirt from a new collection ( Misha Zverev - Sports.ru). And when you get up to be ranked in the top hundred, they give you as many things as you want, and the fee is also a bonus at the end of the season, depending on how you finish it in the ranking. But now Aslan has a French manager, who has all the schemes debugged, but what scheme did I have? Ask for cheaper sneakers. Or Dima Tursunov, who had a contract, gave us his own shoes: "Take it if the size fits."


"Once Aslan played a tournament, and Vanya took off his sneakers and gave it to him."

Caption: Eventually, veterans like Safin and Kafelnikov helped Kuprin, center, with Karatsev

"In Sochi, we played 12 match points, learned how to tie shoelaces, went through the difficult quarterfinals and reached Richard Muzaev: then he was already in the ITF hundred, plus he was also from Vladikavkaz, and no one knew us ...

After young Karatsev worked his way up the ITF circuit, he had a chance to play juniors Wimbledon but had no money to get there. A patron said "There is no 3,000 euros, but here is 2,000. That's enough to get to London then we'll figure out how to get back."

Fifteen times Aslan went through qualifiers but lost in the first round, so he didn't get any ATP points. The three of them traveled to Turkey. Aslan would eat breakfast while "Yura and I would take turns", swapping the hotel bracelet each morning. Aslan got a wild card and won his first ATP match.

Then, Aslan traveled alone to ATP tournaments. There was no money for anyone else. Gunter Bresnik (German that coached Dominic Thiem and earlier Boris Becker) offered him a contract but demanded 30% of his winnings. So Karatsev refused.

One partner coached Putin and the security is described


How did he turn things around this year?


The question everyone is asking.

"By focusing from start to finish. He could afford a lot: to win five games in a row, but it was so easy for him that he could not hold this concentration for too long. I don't know what happened - maybe the pandemic hiatus helped take a breath of air. Plus, he improved the serve: he shortened the swing on the first serve, and she flew a little faster. Excessive movement takes 20-30 km / h {I believe that means reduces the serve speed}. Aslan in his youth had a very good presentation, then he somehow lost it, we also talked about this topic.

Hope Karatsev can keep it going.

[stotty]

This article dates back to 2015, but gives some sense of the expense long before having any potential to earn an income.

Nick Saviano: What it Costs to Raise a Future Tennis Pro


Saviano describes what it takes, financially, to raise a tennis prodigy in a feature article in, of all places, Departures Magazine. "To develop a world-class tennis player costs tennis of thousands of dollars a year," Saviano says. Training and travel gets incrementally more expensive as a junior player gets older. Saviano estimates that at 11 years old -- Julia-Rose's age (a player featured in the article) -- it might cost $20,000 annually and increase at a rate of $5,000 to $10,00 a year. This means by the time a kid first picks up a racket to the time that kid turns pro, "it costs a minimum of a quarter-million dollars," saviano says.

And: "The elite world comes with a hefty price tag. At IMG, for example, it costs $71,400 per year for a tennis player to enroll full-time."

{Can't find the original now that they've redone their web site: http://www.departures.com/ )

Funny you should post this, as when I spoke to the father of the player I know on the tour, he said he had forked out around 250,000 pounds (sterling) on his son up until that point. At that point his son was 24 years old. You have to consider the father is the coach so he is saving significant money there. Last I caught up with the father they had found a sponsor but were struggling to break even in terms of winnings versus costs.

[jimlosaltos]

Funny you should post this, as when I spoke to the father of the player I know on the tour, he said he had forked out around 250,000 pounds (sterling) on his son up until that point. At that point his son was 24 years old. You have to consider the father is the coach so he is saving significant money there. Last I caught up with the father they had found a sponsor but were struggling to break even in terms of winnings versus costs.

Digging for sponsors is what in start-up tech firm lingo is called "Lawyers and Doctors Money". Not for the shy. "OPM", Other People's Money, is the wild west.

I recall Camilla Giorgi getting into a legal brouhaha because she or her "interesting" dad made promises in return for a Florida sponsor's money, then skipped town -- supposedly. Then Naomi Osaka got sued (and won in court) because supposedly her dad recruited some good coaches to help her for nearly-free. One coach claimed he was promised something if she made it. Got to get that in writing.

I wonder if any tennis parents have tried crowd funding, i.e. GoFundMe ? Can't be a raw kid but have some track record, I would imagine. What gets funded seems to depend on the random emotional appeal and timing. I helped a local tennis shop that put up an appeal on GoFundMe when small businesses were shutdown due to Covid. Paid a few months rent!

[stotty]

Miomir Kecmanovic, who was slated to exit in round one as Novak's first round opponent, made the most of his good fortune and went on to progress to round 4. So instead of going home with $103,000 goes home with $328,000 instead. He exited in the first round of the doubles but bagged another $30,000 for the privilege.

So a total of $358,000. He's ranked 77 and aged 22. As my late father used to say, sometimes you need a little luck and then be sure to make the most of it.

I wonder how Miomir Kecmanovic's future will pan out. I have never seen him play but he has time in front of him yet.

I have a sponsor who part-funds the development of promising junior players in their early performance years. It works well and at least gives players some financial aid. The sponsor benefits from tax breaks for doing it and gets newspaper coverage but there is also an altruistic side to it for which we are all very grateful. The owner is wealthy and can afford to give a bit away.