The Torment of the Tour - Why Aussie athletes are behind the eight ball in professional tennis

The typical “pro tennis player” reputation of fame, fortune and exotic lifestyle could well be one of the biggest misconceptions in the professional sporting sphere - particularly for those unfortunate enough to be Australian.

On its face, most would feel the life of a professional tennis player is enviable. The common perception is of constant jet-setting on first class flights, checking in to a different 5 star hotel each week in exotic locations with paparazzi and fans awaiting your arrival - a lifestyle many could only dream of.

However, while this certainly may be the case for some, this way of life is enjoyed by merely a tiny proportion of the international playing group. “While the money in tennis is great for those at the top, the drop off is stark and very much so compared to other high profile individual sports”, commented Greg Jericho for The Guardian.

The great majority of professional tennis players struggle to make a profit from their prize money once the costs associated with international travel and accommodation are deducted. This situation is then made undeniably worse when players are travelling from Australia due to its physical isolation from the rest of the world.

It costs about $A160,000 a year to survive on the tour. A tennis player’s necessary expenses include international travel, food, usually accommodation at the second tier levels, equipment and medical costs - just to name a few.

However the average annual income for a full time touring tennis professional ranked around

ATP450 is only approximately $A 24,000.

Indeed, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) estimates that only the top 150 players in the world make a significant profit on the tour, with the rest barely breaking even and most actually playing at a net financial loss.

Many Australian tennis players feel they are in a predicament when it comes to development, as while Australia does have a Grand Slam, players are still so separated from the Professional Tour not only in distance but also in tournaments.

In Europe, professionals are guaranteed to find 10-12 Futures events a week taking place, and another 3-4 Challengers a week, however Australia hosts merely 6 Challengers a year. This is particularly concerning as the Futures and Challenger tournaments are essentially the bread and butter for young players, and the dearth of home-grown tournaments dooms Australian players to a tiring, lonely and expensive life on the road for most of their careers.

Prior to this years Australian Open, Nick Kyrgios commented that even he was “away from home for five and a half months” and that he “doesn’t really ever want to do that again.” He said that “if [he] were to win the Aus Open or something … [he] probably wouldn’t play for the rest of the year”.

It is only natural to then begin drawing comparisons with other professional sports played in Australia. This particular situation is dissimilar to any faced by other professional sportspeople in the country - especially in the sense that athletes are expected to personally finance the majority of their expenses while on the tour. The AFL provides a stark contrast.

Tennis is not like other sports where, as a professional, the club picks up the bill. You are not “employed” by a team who then compensates all travel, medical and other expenses involved in competing. In tennis, players basically have to come from a wealthy enough background to travel to these events to gain points and become a professional.

Last year 29 year-old Brisbane-born John Millman made international headlines with his stunning success in the fourth round at the 2018 US Open, defeating Roger Federer in four tight sets. The victory propelled him to a ranking of ATP 55 (now ATP36 as of 28th January 2019), vindicating his career-best season to date.

But most of Millman’s career had certainly not been played in the limelight. Following the 2018 Australian Open, he wrote an emotional piece for “The Player’s Voice”, an online magazine that aims to “deepen the connection between sportspeople and fans”. Millman commented that to be able to play in tournaments like the Australian Open is why you work so hard in the sport.

He says it “hasn’t always come easy for him.”

Millman emphasised the financial struggles he has faced during his time on The Tour.

“Being here [at the Australian Open] is so important … from a financial point of view, playing in the slams allows you to manage the year properly, and to be able to make this tennis life work.

“You’d be lying if you said the money didn’t matter … there is a fight for a greater share of revenue at the majors: we need more players to be able to make a good living from the game. At the lower levels, so many guys are really struggling.”

“I know when I first started out I had to find ways to make ends meet … you’d sleep on floors of train stations and all of that.”

Any tennis fan would have heard the words “journeyman” and “battler” thrown around by the Australian and international media to refer to the “older players” who’ve found late success. These terms tend to have a clear stigma attached. Millman has certainly been subject to being labelled as a “journeyman” in the past, and has commented that he’s now “used to the way [he hears himself] described. In the media, they love to say, ‘He’s an Aussie battler.’ That irked me a little bit to begin with.” He has, though, come to embrace the term.

However referring to players like this (particularly when usually they are only 27 - 30 years-old) certainly brings up questions regarding the institutionalisation of pressure within the sport to find immediate success at a very young age. This then leads to a vicious cycle of Australian players beginning touring on the adult circuit at vulnerable ages, removing them from their family and friends for the majority of the year, sometimes from as young as 16. Players then need to defend points gained at tournaments each year, meaning it’s effectively impossible to ever have a break from touring.

This is also exacerbated by the fact that Tennis Australia (TA) only funds players up to the age of 22 years. Even then, a player aged 22, for example, must have attained a ranking of ATP167 or better to qualify for financial assistance. The word is these standards were based on the performances of top players such as Federer and Nadal, and what they achieved at this age - which is clearly a virtually impossible standard to reach for the majority.

The irony being, of course, that players at a level of 167 or better wouldn’t require TA financial assistance anyway.

Players point out that there are numerous ways in which the problems associated with the professional tennis tour could be alleviated, particularly for Australian athletes.

Novak Djokovic has made his voice heard regarding the financial issues associated with the lower levels of the tour a number of times, particularly in early 2018 when he called for the the formation of a breakaway players union separate to the ATP - an idea that divided both the locker room and boardroom alike. This independent body, which would represent the interests of players only, would allow for significant increases in prize money to provide players with a fairer share of the revenue at tournaments. Currently, as summarised by player Ryan Harrison, “the only people that represent us [the ATP] are also representing the tournaments.” He went on to support Djokovic’s idea, saying that “it would be good to have some form of representation that doesn’t have bias on the other side”.

Professional tennis players could do worse than copy the model of the AFLPA (Australian Rules Football League Players Association), which has been highly successful in negotiating better deals for AFL players. The AFLPA is now a force in the AFL sphere and must be involved in decisions relating to players salaries, wellbeing and life after football.

A body such as this could also assist in negotiating sponsorship deals - something that most tennis players attempt to do alone, as most cannot afford managers.

Another solution would be to introduce more tournaments, particularly ATP Challengers, in Australia. Doing so would allow players at the “second-tier” level to earn more significant pay cheques and points without the costs associated with international travel, hopefully allowing them to at least break-even with their incomes.

Also, Tennis Australia has recently been building its relationship with Asia. TA could do worse than to subsidise player travel to Asian Futures and Challengers tournaments, as this would bring obvious two way benefits.

Essentially, though, if the Australian Government wants to have a viable international tennis presence, it must direct more funding into the TA scholarship program, and TA must overhaul the current scholarship ranking requirements with more realistic targets.

But, in the meantime, the Aussies will keep grinding. As they say, “don’t you just love the Tour”.

Postscript

John Millman enjoyed a successful Brisbane International, Sydney International and Australian Open 2019 campaign. He paired JP Smith in Mens Doubles of the Brisbane International and made the semi-finals, and also made the singles Quarter-Finals at the Sydney International. During the Australian Open, he reached the Round of 64, but unfortunately went down to in-from Bautista-Agut in five tight sets.