Most in tennis driven by love of the game
The qualifying for the U.S. Open tennis championships begins Tuesday and there will be six Canadians vying for a chance to join Milos Raonic and Eugenie Bouchard in the main draw.
The men’s and women’s singles winners will each collect US$3.7 million while first-round losers will receive US$50,000 just for showing up.
The players in the main draw represent the sport’s one per cent. The reality is the various stages of the professional tennis tour are largely populated by paupers.
To put their plight in perspective, the 700th-best hockey player in the world is skating in the NHL with a guaranteed salary of $650,000.
The 700th-best men’s tennis player is unable to pay his bills. In 2016, only 67 players on the ATP Tour earned more than US$650,000.
Each year, parents spend tens of thousands of dollars on tennis academies, coaching, equipment and travel to tournaments. They dream of watching their offspring at Wimbledon or Roland Garros. The overwhelming majority end up disappointed.
There are 15 Canadians who played at least 20 professional tournaments, but only a handful of them cover their expenses. Raonic is at the top this year with US$1.38 million (he earned US$5.5 million last year), and there’s a sharp drop to Denis Shapovalov (US$352,159 after picking up US$220,000 at the Rogers Cup), Vasek Pospisil (US$262,980) and Peter Polansky (US$162,623). If you add up the winnings for the 13 Canadian men behind Raonic and Shapovalov, it totals less than US$550,000.
Philip Bester was a French Open junior finalist and was on Canada’s Davis Cup team at age 17. Bester announced his retirement last month after more than 10 years of mixed results. Bester saw a lot of the world, but it was an expensive journey. His official earnings totalled US$272,000, or less than US$25,000 a year. Bester was never ranked higher than No. 225.