If two/more events being held in the same week, how do players decide which to play?

[hlkimfung]

like the past week, Halle and Queens, and maybe LA and Washington in some years, what make the player decide which to play?

Are they bound by contract and sponser? Like Nike/Wilson and Lacoste/Reebok/Babolat have a relative bigger pressence in Germany and UK repsectively, so the contract actually 'require' Federer and Roddick to play in the correspnding events for endorsement purpose? Does this make sense? I remember Lendl hate playing in Italy but his contract (I assume Adidas) require him to play in Italy at least once a year.

Or, for the Roddick hater, they may just said Roddick pick Queens to avoid Federer after all, which maybe the case...

Sometime it's easy to decide, like the Hoston clay event in being held the same time as Bacelona. It's a no brianer to the american and the true dirt baller on which to pick

 

[TwistServe]

Or, for the Roddick hater, they may just said Roddick pick Queens to avoid Federer after all, which maybe the case...

That's dumb. Queens is a bigger event and draws higher seeded opponents. It is the reverse if any.. But more than likely Roddick has won Queens the last 3 years and Federer has won Halle the past 3 years. Why change?

Hewitt would probably prefer to play Queens to stay away from Federer. Same with some other pros. But who really knows.

 

[Datacipher]

That's dumb. Queens is a bigger event and draws higher seeded opponents. It is the reverse if any.. But more than likely Roddick has won Queens the last 3 years and Federer has won Halle the past 3 years. Why change?

Hewitt would probably prefer to play Queens to stay away from Federer. Same with some other pros. But who really knows.

That's not dumb. Sometimes pros do choose events to avoid other pros. It happens. Usually the reasons include:

1.The level of competition: sometimes they want high level, sometimes lower
2.MONEY
3.Yes, sometimes sponsors have a say, but usually this is only at 1 or 2 tournaments where the particular sponsor has a vested interest, players don't want sponsors controlling their whole year!
4. They simply like the environment(courts, facilities, weather, ammenities, fans) at one tourney over another.

 

[Fee]

Money (including under the table appearance fees as well as prize money), the number of points offered, the particular city a tournament is in, possibility of gaining direct acceptance (for the lower ranked players), level of competition, and whether or not the player's agency owns or is vested in the tournament (for example, SFX owns the Washington DC tournament, so Roddick, the Bryans, and others will almost always play there). It might also depend on the tournaments the week before and the week after, and what type of travel arrangments can be made.

 

[Kaptain Karl]

Yep. Those pretty much cover it.

- KK

 

[python]

Queens has been traditionally a much more prestigious tournament, compared to Halle, a johnny-come-lately to the tour. In the past, Queens champions were often regarded as the favorite to win Wimbledon, and indeed they frequently did bear out expectations.

Although Halle now has the same prize money and number of ATP points as Queens, it has nowhere near the history and tradition.

 

[Rabbit]

Did anyone mention money?

Halle may be the johnny-come-lately, but they apparently are doing things right there to draw players away from Queens.

 

[python]

Yup, it's called appearance fees. Federer is probably getting more in guarantees from Halle than he did from winning the tournament!

 

[Jonnyf]

the pro's want to say "Rub a dub dub thanks for the grub whoops Dough"

 

[West Coast Ace]

That's not dumb. Sometimes pros do choose events to avoid other pros. It happens. Usually the reasons include:

1.The level of competition: sometimes they want high level, sometimes lower
2.MONEY
3.Yes, sometimes sponsors have a say, but usually this is only at 1 or 2 tournaments where the particular sponsor has a vested interest, players don't want sponsors controlling their whole year!
4. They simply like the environment(courts, facilities, weather, ammenities, fans) at one tourney over another.

Agreed - and I'd add:
5) better restaurants/hotter women

 

[Fee]

Yup, it's called appearance fees. Federer is probably getting more in guarantees from Halle than he did from winning the tournament!

I would bet that is true for every tournament Federer plays (except for Masters and Slams).

 

[loopy]

it's all about the money.