Tennis is much more than what you see on television. It is the US Open in luxurious New York, the glamor of Roland Garros or the purity of Wimbledon, yes, but it is also that player who, at 23 years old and outside the top 500, still fights every day to one day become a professional .
Novak Djokovic leads the earnings ranking in 2023 with 10.5 million dollars, followed by Carlos Alcaraz (9.5) and Daniil Medvedev (7.7). The tennis player who currently closes the ATP top 100, the Austrian Jurij Rodionov has earned just over $300,000. That is equivalent to about 12 times the average annual salary in Spain. It may seem like a lot, But from that figure we must subtract taxes, the cost of the coach and physio, meals, flights and hotels, which in many tournaments have to be paid by the player himself.
With all that in mind, Rodionov’s current account will not be so buoyant either. And right now there are only 99 tennis players better than him in the world. Imagine then the situation of the player who is much further back in the ranking. “If you don’t win, you’re screwed. In the depths of tennis you’re going to lose money for sure”Miguel Damas, who is currently ranked 520 in the ATP, told Relevo a few months ago.
For the big stars, the path to professionalism is usually easy because they break into the elite at a very young age. There are the examples of Rafael Nadal or Carlos Alcaraz. However, The vast majority of tennis players have to make a huge effort from an economic point of view to sustain their dream during their youth.. More or less, each season of a tennis player between 14 and 17 years old is around 50,000 euros. And the prizes they win in tournaments, unless you are a cracker, rarely cover that amount.
How the tennis “minimum wage” works
To try to help tennis players who are growing in the ranking, The ATP has designed a kind of “minimum wage” that will come into force in January 2024. According to this program, called Baseline, The men’s circuit is committed to ensuring that players who finish each season among the top 250 in the world rankings have minimum earnings depending on your ranking. That is, if the tennis players do not reach a certain figure, the ATP covers the expenses.
“Tennis has to collectively try to create an ecosystem in the future in which more and more tennis players make a living from this sport. It is a step in the right direction”
Novak Djokovic ATP number one
By 2024, those minimum wages will be: $300,000 for those who finish in the top 100; 150,000 for players between 101 and 175; and 75,000 for those who finish the year between 176 and 250. “This guarantee will allow players to plan their seasons with greater certainty, focus on their game and invest in their teams. This includes covering the costs of personal coaches and physiotherapists, as well as travel,” says the ATP. The program, whose initial test will be from 2024 to 2026, will benefit between 30 and 45 players each year, according to calculations by the governing body of the men’s circuit.
Additionally, Baseline will offer coverage in case of injury. If a tennis player has played less than nine tournaments between the ATP and Challenger circuits in a season due to one or more injuries, they will have guaranteed earnings.: $200,000 for the top 100; $100,000 for tennis players from 101 to 175; and 50,000 for those between 175 and 250. And there is a third pillar in the program: an advance of $200,000 for tennis players who enter the top 125 for the first time.
The tennis players appreciate it, but they think it comes too late
Novak Djokovic is one of the most active tennis players when it comes to demanding rights for lower ranked players. There is a reason why the Serbian is the visible face of the PTPA, a new association that acts as a union within the tennis organization chart. The 24 Grand Slam champion believes that the creation of this minimum wage is “a step in the right direction”.
“Tennis has to try collectively to create in the future an ecosystem in which more and more tennis players make a living from this sport. I think that from the PTPA we have contributed to this announcement. At the 2020 US Open we already talked about this and there is still a lot to do, but it is a step in the right direction,” the number one in the world ranking recently noted.
But there are visions that are not so positive. “I think it will help more people make a living from tennis, but it is not the solution,” the Spaniard tells Relevo. Roberto Bautista. “The solution so that there are more people making a living from tennis is for the prizes in lower tournaments to be higher“.
Sergi Bruguera, double Roland Garros champion, believes that this minimum wage “is going to help a lot”, although he confesses that, from his point of view, it arrives “a little late”. “VIt helps a lot, because in the end there are a lot of expenses, a lot of travel, all the tournaments are very far away and you have to pay for everything: the trip, the coach, the meals… If you enter the top 100, you can cover expenses and earn a good living, but there are others who take three or four years to reach the top 50. It is essential in that case that they receive financial aid,” he recently analyzed during a broadcast on Movistar+.
“It is a way of caring for those who are below and who do not have economic possibilities.. So that they can be helped to continue growing and reach the top. I think it’s very good that those below are starting to worry. The balance is normally very negative. It took a while to arrive, but it’s fine“.
Nacho Encabo is a sports editor at Relevo, a specialist in tennis and the Olympic Games. Born in Madrid, he studied Journalism and Audiovisual Communication at the Rey Juan Carlos University and began as an intern in the sports section of El Mundo in 2011. Knowing German shortly after opened the doors of the dpa agency, where he worked as a special envoy to the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, the 2016 Euro Cup in France and the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In addition, adding Relay and the rest of his career, he has covered the four tennis Grand Slams, the Davis Cup , athletics world championships, Formula 1 Grand Prix and countless LaLiga and Champions League matches. He has also worked as a reporter at El Independiente and traveled to the Tokyo Olympics on the Spanish Olympic Committee team. …
2023-10-15 14:16:08
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