WTA player finance struggles

[tazzietiger]

I came across this article about WTA player Camila Giorgi and her financial struggles. It's a long article but worth a read. It gives a good insight on how players have personal contracts with sponsors.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/news/20140110/camila-giorgi/

 

[Caesar]

There are similar articles around from a few other players, mostly men. Life outside the top 100 is tough.

Whilst there is a lot more money in tennis these days the wealth disparity has increased massively. IMO a lot is down to the way the game is played nowadays. Slow, homogenised courts and heavy balls that reward consistent grinding play tends to result in less upsets. You see the same players at the same stage of every tournament. Good for tournament promoters and top players, bad for everyone else.

I think they really need to have a big change in the way prizemoney is allocated. The cash for getting to QFs, SFs, Fs and winning tournaments is huge, but the players who are making those rounds generally have huge endorsement contracts and don't really live on their prizemoney (unlike the guys getting knocked out early). That's before you even look at the money offered on the satellite tours, which is paltry in the extreme.

IMO they need to take a lot of cash out of the later rounds of tournaments and allocate it to qualifying and early rounds. They also need to find a way to fund Challengers, Futures, etc. to a higher level. Those are the tournaments that create the next generation of champions, and at the moment most players are taking a financial loss to compete in them. It's not sustainable.

 

[BobbyMorri]

what a dodgy bloke the father seems to be. u get a loan, u pay back the loan or u work dishes.

it must be hard already for those players outside the top 100 to make ends meet. they dont need people like her to ruin what little financial help is available.

 

[Miqar_Baqfhied]

There are similar articles around from a few other players, mostly men. Life outside the top 100 is tough.

Whilst there is a lot more money in tennis these days the wealth disparity has increased massively. IMO a lot is down to the way the game is played nowadays. Slow, homogenised courts and heavy balls that reward consistent grinding play tends to result in less upsets. You see the same players at the same stage of every tournament. Good for tournament promoters and top players, bad for everyone else.

I think they really need to have a big change in the way prizemoney is allocated. The cash for getting to QFs, SFs, Fs and winning tournaments is huge, but the players who are making those rounds generally have huge endorsement contracts and don't really live on their prizemoney (unlike the guys getting knocked out early). That's before you even look at the money offered on the satellite tours, which is paltry in the extreme.

IMO they need to take a lot of cash out of the later rounds of tournaments and allocate it to qualifying and early rounds. They also need to find a way to fund Challengers, Futures, etc. to a higher level. Those are the tournaments that create the next generation of champions, and at the moment most players are taking a financial loss to compete in them. It's not sustainable.

Well said