Tennis is infamous for being the loneliest sport in the world. It’s surprising when a top player like Agassi or Murray comes out and admits they don’t like the sport but there are many stories from lower ranked players about how soul destroying (and money-losing) it is.
If you’re not in the top 100 in the ATP or WTA rankings, you’re basically living tournament to tournament and often can’t even afford a coach. Every year you don’t make the top 100 you need to seriously consider retiring and doing something else with your life so you don’t end up broke in your 30’s.
Compare that with a team sport like NBA basketball which has about 450 players across all teams and a league minimum salary over $1 million per year (and a median salary over $5 million). That means if you’re just outside the top 100 players in the NBA you’re actually paid more than $10 million a year. It’s a staggering difference!
I think that’s true for a lot of non-popular sport. More often than not you have to train yourself to represent the country that don’t pay you much attention. I remember stories about some athletes(fencing i think) having to juggle between job and training, and some sport barrier of entry is quite high, so athletes tend to have a hard time giving up. You’re not seen if you don’t win a gold, and you’re expect to fund yourself and pave the way yourself.
Tennis is infamous for being the loneliest sport in the world. It’s surprising when a top player like Agassi or Murray comes out and admits they don’t like the sport but there are many stories from lower ranked players about how soul destroying (and money-losing) it is.
If you’re not in the top 100 in the ATP or WTA rankings, you’re basically living tournament to tournament and often can’t even afford a coach. Every year you don’t make the top 100 you need to seriously consider retiring and doing something else with your life so you don’t end up broke in your 30’s.
Compare that with a team sport like NBA basketball which has about 450 players across all teams and a league minimum salary over $1 million per year (and a median salary over $5 million). That means if you’re just outside the top 100 players in the NBA you’re actually paid more than $10 million a year. It’s a staggering difference!
I think that’s true for a lot of non-popular sport. More often than not you have to train yourself to represent the country that don’t pay you much attention. I remember stories about some athletes(fencing i think) having to juggle between job and training, and some sport barrier of entry is quite high, so athletes tend to have a hard time giving up. You’re not seen if you don’t win a gold, and you’re expect to fund yourself and pave the way yourself.
This is one of the article talking about the issue.