I love tennis more than a physical contest, more than a game position. It's a mental
challenge against your opponent against your self doubt and against your own impulses.
But one to be professionals can waste a lifetime and fall just short of greatness
because tennis is a broken sport. That's a company forensic story.
When players like Federer or Nadal or Serena or
win a big tournament, they've make truly millions of dollars. This guy is special. Some people,
obviously the people in that country frustrated and when they see favor being given to someone
who's not, he's been exempt and compliant. I think it's an absolute describable and he had any grace.
He would go to the airport and go home because he's making a mockery of his favorite
tennis term, but then he is important to our story. So we're going to have
to talk to them in a little bit. So then we have the sponsors. You would
assume that being a professional tennis player would translate into a decent income.
But does it really well? Of course, no. Right now the ATP that's the association of tennis
professionals registers around 1700 ranked players in the WTA. There are about 1600 ranked
female players out of all those players, only 128 players are granted direct entry
to a tournament like the U S open. So making it to the big show is already tough on its own.
Even for these professional officially professional players. So surely you're
getting a reward. Right. Well, now that might seem like a lot of money for losing in the first round,
but out of that money, you have to count your travel expenses, your trainers,
your food, your equipment, plus all the tournaments that you've had to play
to get a higher ranking, to be able to get into this tournament in the first place.
So yes, a big name player in tennis can mean a lot of money in prices and sponsors, but for the rest,
the majority rest of the professional players, making money out of tennis. Almost impossible.
Let's take Michael Russell. For example, if you haven't heard of him, that's okay.
Pretty big tennis fan to know about him, either know about him before researching this.
So anyway, his highest ranking was 92. And just before retiring,
he had made more than $2 million in his tennis career, which, yeah,
I mean, it sounds like a lot of money. Then you factor in that this was over 15 years,
his expenses included $35,000 a year in travel, $9,000 just in stringing his racquets.
Brussel had to travel to smaller tournaments worldwide to make. Some dough. And he also
shared trainers and misuses plus constantly looked for the cheapest lodging options available to make
ends meet. He had to earn around $200,000 a year. So when you take numbers like that, it's obvious
that a lot of people think about it twice before trying to leap into professional tennis and he's not the only one.
Another example, more recent example is Pablo Carreno Busta
to get to where he's now he had to play more than 140 games in 2013 alone. He played 71 matches.
In some cases he earned around $1,300 per win. So he would even lose. On those matches in 2019,
Chris O'Connell was 25. He has reached 130 ninth in the world rankings.
And 180 2 matches more than any other player, male or female in the pro tour. His total earnings
after expenses were around $15,000. And this is even worse for women, female professional
tennis players can expect to get around 80 cents on the dollar compared to their male
counterparts. And that happens in one of the most equal sports around the U S open.
And the rest of the grand slam events are some of the few sports events in which women and men earn
the same, but outside of these big tournaments, the struggle is no secret in 2020. For example,
Serena Williams, this coach lashed out the unequal environment that players outside the top 100 earn
something was wrong, really, but of course it's hard to make money
as a professional athlete in any sport, but what happened.
When you compare tennis to other professional sports? In 2018,
Noah Rubin earned $225,000 in prize money just that year. Which again, sounds like a lot. Well,
a golf player with similar ranking would have earned around 600,000. Maybe more,
the point is, does needs a solution and money is just a symptom of a bigger problem.
The bigger problem instilled in this sports DNA,
but to talk about tennis DNA, who better than Andrew Riley, if you know who he is,
he just usually doesn't go in front of the camera, but he hosts the called tennis channel,
which I am a big fan of the surface professional tennis seems to be in a bit of trouble.
It's best known stars are at or nearing retirement age with no mainstay replacements. The press has
had a field day with the number of high profile scandals as of recent and the latest worldwide
pandemic, you may have heard of threatened to shut professional tournament's down for a long time,
but was the overall sport of tennis hurting, not quite evidence.
In fact points to the contrary in 2019 grand slam television viewership grew 20% with fans
watching tennis on average 36% longer than usual, indicating a stronger than usual
public interest in tennis though, the virus put a temporary, hold on. Things recreation.
The inherent socially distant aspect of playing tennis proved to be a boon for the sport with
2020 rackets sales increasing 38% year over year in recreational participation, increasing 49%.
In fact, compared to other sports Tennis, and is one of the most inclusive activities
to participate. With studies showing 53% male engagement versus 47% female
all appears bright and rosy until we make our way up to the top echelons of the game.
Now don't get me wrong. Tennis remains one of the most popular professional sports worldwide
and a cash cow at that with revenue generated from this four grand slams alone,
rivaling that of major sporting franchises.
It's how it delegates that money into play. That's where the problems begin.
Tennis is unequal. There it is just look at tennis as prize money distribution, compared to other
sports. Now, of course, who is to decide what is a fair income for players of all levels to receive
for the executives running the show, such as ATP chairman, Andrea Gaudenzi or WTA chairman and CEO,
Steve Simon, both agree that talent and success dictate earning potential.
Therefore, similar to good old capital's. The top players deserve the lion's share of all earnings
while many might agree with this sentiment, the inequality issue rears its head when the
100th best tennis player in the world, a player who like many others helped the multi-billion
dollar sports day float in major competitions hardly makes enough to scrape by after expenses.
Whereas the 100th best in many other sports might earn far more for their efforts.
Take former ATP player Riley former top 200 ranked player who despite
earning a spot into 2006 as us open qualifying. By his own account spent that week crashing on
a dingy pullout in some friend's hotel while dining on McDonald's egg McMuffins, a step up.
In fact, from the cement floors he had thus far been accustomed to
unlike the majority of professional sports who provide accommodations for players while traveling
Riley's total pro tennis income. That year of $7,927. Couldn't provide a much more
with his current LinkedIn profile, even providing a sobering recount of his six years on ATP tour.
As playing all over the world, trying to put food on the metaphorical table.
Those star-studded standouts such as Roger Federer and Serena Williams perhaps deserve
monetary benefits for raising the sports international profile to new Heights.
These players are fewer and farther between than ever. And when pays so comparatively low
for up-and-coming professionals, the ATP and WTA might be biting.
The future hand that feeds them taking matters into their own hands players in recent years,
have responded by attempting to change the sport that lower ranked players receive more prize
money. Of course, trying to overthrow the old ways means overthrowing the entire system. So
how do we fix this? The ATP was born in 72 to protect the interests of professional tennis players.
It created the ranking system that became critical to this story,
but it's not only that it also governs the world's most important male tennis tournaments
rankings are super vital in tennis because they set the standards for
players participating in different tournaments. Now, if we're talking about prices and numbers,
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you get a discount if your company is bigger than that. Okay. Speaking of rankings,
that's ranks 1 33 globally. At the time of this video, his record is 1 29, 1 68,
and he's made about $6 million since he turned pro back in 2007 that's before expenses.
And he does have a lot of friends in the ATP. Plus he's been kind of frustrated.
He's calling someone an asshole. And that someone is Andrea Gaudenzi. After this rant,
he took to Twitter to apologize, but it is vital that we understand
Pwhy this happened originally. rofessional athletes, aren't supposed to burst out like this,
of course. Cause you see is a Crusader for the lower ranked players.
His goal is to make the sport more equal and to give these players more money to him,
the ATP doesn't care about the players, the way they used to.
It's become this anti-competitive organization, that concentrates wealth,
honestly, on the top 10 players in the world. So for special created
the professional tennis players association in October, 2020, we are live on YouTube.
This is the PGPA with the idea of helping to protect the players' interests. But
when he announced this plan to Gauednzi, the chairman replied with can't you wait,
cause you see Gaudenzi had taken the reins of the ADP just months prior at a time in which
the sport. To reignite interest in the public.
Of course, obviously, but proposal does have the support of one other place. The new project,
the new idea. This is not my idea or specials idea. We are just executing something that the
previous generations in the last 20 plus years have attempted to do. Number one.
Supports the PTP and his cold precedent to the anti-vaxxer has also been critical of the ATP
and its inability to agree on anything that helps the players immediately.
After the news, they were asked to step down from the ATPs player council,
which they used to be a part of, but this isn't the first time. It has supported the creation
of this union as for the other big names Nadal and Federer, they distanced themselves
from this rebellious group. It wasn't a time for division, rather a time for unit.
But before we dive into the topic of divisiveness and unity, it's important to highlight that.
Players such as Federer have made efforts in this topic. In 2012, he led a group of players
to negotiate with the grand slams to ensure that early round exits had a higher income,
which eventually led to the U S open paying first round exits $75,000, which of course, many love.
So when it's about money, everybody agrees that more is better, but when it comes to equality,
that's, that's harder work. Great idea.
Male chauvinist pig versus Harry light. I'm a tennis player. So in 73, Billie Jean King
played Bobby Riggs, a former number one and won a total of 90 million viewers watched the
battle of the sexes marking the beginning of female tennis players being in the spotlight.
Many female tennis players have become icons. And we have, of course the Williams sisters who are
on this whole other level, but historically it's always been men on one side and women.
Ironically efforts to integrate the women's tennis association and the ATP have existed for years.
Our biggest event, our combined defense want to see both.
So we need to start selling packaging and distributing
the product as one product because we belong to the same storytelling. First,
this would mean better scheduling for a larger audience instead of tournaments
stealing attention. Also, it would mean one single channel to handle all sponsorship and media.
So in theory, money would have more even distribution. Both organizations have
shown some signs of and rating our giant marketing and social media department.
We are also looking to aggregating the commercial rights. So. It's progress, whatever
the best solution is, it needs to come fast. The sports still concentrates much of its wealth.
In these top ranked players, the top five harnessing around 40% of the total prize money
in major tournaments. That's going to take a long time to change. It's been a struggle for decades
and most likely it'll continue to be a struggle for years to come. And the topic is out there
now more than ever. Tennis is too unequal and that has to change, but that's not the only struggle here.
Top rank players suffer as well in 2021, Naomi Osaka avoided press and received
a $15,000 fine. And after the incident, she spoke of the tremendous pressure that she faced
and how it was affecting her mental health. Iga Swiatek won the 2020 French Open and then saw tennis balls
as soon as she closed her eyes, which rendered her unable to sleep even beyond boring was a Swedish
superstar who left tennis at 25 after losing the 81, us open final, and he left the sport.
He took his car, drove away and never played another grand slam again,
Agassi or Jennifer Capriati or Martina Higgins are some of the names who have openly discussed
their drug abuse during their playing years. It is a good. That it's becoming more visible
after all more eyes on the sports eventually translates into more change, about to happen.
The U S open and other events have increased their early round exit money.
Make tournaments ensure that female and male players are in the same prize money.
Other tournaments will embrace, pay more to the lesser ranked players and who knows,
maybe even the ATP and the WTA merged to guarantee better conditions for all players.
Perhaps now we understand even more, right? Every time a player loses.
It's not just that match. It's the pain of losing a match
in a game that they love and hate a sport that's beautiful and flawed at the same.