Why there will *never* be a comeback in American Men's Tennis

[weakera]

Taylor Fritz
#1 ranked American male tennis player
Career earnings: $7,381,274
Coaching, medical treatment: Unpaid
Tennis season length: 11 months

Meanwhile, in the realm of middling players in the major American sports:

Jesus Aguilar and the Miami Marlins reached agreement Tuesday on a one-year contract that guarantees him $7.5 million.
The 31-year-old first baseman will get a $7.3 million salary this season. The deal includes a mutual option for 2023 with a $200,000 buyout.

The Kwame Brown Experience is coming to the Bay Area, reports SI:
“Kwame Brown has agreed to a one-year, $7 million deal with Golden State, according to his agent, Mark Bartelstein.”

Free agent pitcher Jordan Lyles and the Baltimore Orioles finalized a $7 million, one-year contract on Saturday night.

Defensive tackle Jarran Reed is joining the Kansas City Chiefs on a one-year deal worth up to $7 million.



Nadal, Federer and Djokovic career prize money to date combined: $412.47 million
Francisco Lindor career salary: $394 million
Mike Trout career salary: $523 million
Alex Rodriguez career salary: $400 million
Steph Curry career salary: $470 million
Pat Mahomes latest contract: 10 years, $450 million


On the other hand:

Jonquel Jones, 2021 WNBA MVP career earnings: $416,150
A'ja Wilson, 2020 WNBA MVP career earnings: $398,422
Elle Belle Donne, 2019 WNBA MVP career earnings: $899,480

Ko Jin Young, #1 ranked LGPA career earnings: $9.4 million
Carly Lloyd, highest paid women's soccer player salary: $518,000


WTA Australian Open winners purse: $2.75 million
Serena Williams career prize money: $95 million
Simona Halep career prize money: $38 million
Sloane Stephens career prize money: $16 million



The bottom line is: If you are a young, American male athletic prodigy, becoming a tennis player is just about the poorest decision you can make from a financial perspective.
Even a middling career as a professional in any of the other big four American sports will yield greater career earnings than an elite tennis career.

Meanwhile, the opposite is true on the women's side. Tennis offers the most earnings potential for female athletes, which is why American Women's tennis remains strong, and will continue to.

 

[Nadal - GOAT]

Taylor Fritz
#1 ranked American male tennis player
Career earnings: $7,381,274
Coaching, medical treatment: Unpaid
Tennis season length: 11 months

Meanwhile, in the realm of middling players in the major American sports:

Jesus Aguilar and the Miami Marlins reached agreement Tuesday on a one-year contract that guarantees him $7.5 million.
The 31-year-old first baseman will get a $7.3 million salary this season. The deal includes a mutual option for 2023 with a $200,000 buyout.

The Kwame Brown Experience is coming to the Bay Area, reports SI:
“Kwame Brown has agreed to a one-year, $7 million deal with Golden State, according to his agent, Mark Bartelstein.”

Free agent pitcher Jordan Lyles and the Baltimore Orioles finalized a $7 million, one-year contract on Saturday night.

Defensive tackle Jarran Reed is joining the Kansas City Chiefs on a one-year deal worth up to $7 million.



Nadal, Federer and Djokovic career prize money to date combined: $412.47 million
Francisco Lindor career salary: $394 million
Mike Trout career salary: $523 million
Alex Rodriguez career salary: $400 million
Steph Curry career salary: $470 million
Pat Mahomes latest contract: 10 years, $450 million


On the other hand:

Jonquel Jones, 2021 WNBA MVP career earnings: $416,150
A'ja Wilson, 2020 WNBA MVP career earnings: $398,422
Elle Belle Donne, 2019 WNBA MVP career earnings: $899,480

Ko Jin Young, #1 ranked LGPA career earnings: $9.4 million
Carly Lloyd, highest paid women's soccer player salary: $518,000


WTA Australian Open winners purse: $2.75 million
Serena Williams career prize money: $95 million
Simona Halep career prize money: $38 million
Sloane Stephens career prize money: $16 million



The bottom line is: If you are a young, American male athletic prodigy, becoming a tennis player is just about the poorest decision you can make from a financial perspective.
Even a middling career as a professional in any of the other big four American sports will yield greater career earnings than an elite tennis career.

Meanwhile, the opposite is true on the women's side. Tennis offers the most earnings potential for female athletes, which is why American Women's tennis remains strong, and will continue to.

Very good point. Opelka had stated some time back that he wished he had become a basketball player because of monetary reasons. Unless the young US prodigy is really passionate about tennis, he is more likely to divert to other sports. It just makes more sense financially.

 

[Crocodile]

Interesting discussion. I don’t know much at all about the incomes of sports people in team sports in the US but what I know here in Australia is what happens say in the NRL ( National Rugby League) Here each club has a salary cap. On the field there are 13 players on at any time but the squad for the team is 25. So what you might end up having is a situation where the top 3 or 4 super star players in each club on a very high contract with the rest on much lower salaries. My point is firstly to ask whether there is type of pay variance in the US team sports that would separate the super stars from the rest of the team as to what they could end up earning. Secondly how hard would it be to make it pro in the US sports.
Definitely I think with tennis being such an international sport would make it very hard to crack the top 30 rankings and that would be an even tougher issue if you are ranked outside the top 100 to earn the big bucks.
Maybe tennis needs to look at its money structure to ensure that the tour can be competitive.

 

[spottishwood]

WeakEra
Is OPs account hacked?
How can this not be a bait thread

 

[UnforcedTerror]

Thanks to Rolex, KIA, Mercedes and Nike, some of the top tennis players don't give a **** about prize money or other players.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1468357685850558467

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1478078795483688961

 

[weakera]

Thanks to Rolex, KIA, Mercedes and Nike, some of the top tennis players don't give a **** about prize money or other players.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1468357685850558467

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1478078795483688961

That's kind of the further point, isn't it? Lucrative brand sponsorships are only available to a relatively small number of players.

This underlines the importance of prize money/salary for the down-the-line athletes and non-stars. Those opportunities are far more lucrative for male athletes OUTside of tennis.

A solid, unspectacular relief pitcher in Major League Baseball - well outside the top-100 players in the game - could easily clear $30 or $40 million in career earnings.

Jeurys Familia - someone you haven't heard of - has earned $57 million and counting in salary, the equivalent of the 5th most prize money earned all-time in men's tennis.

 

[Zoid]

Taylor Fritz
#1 ranked American male tennis player
Career earnings: $7,381,274
Coaching, medical treatment: Unpaid
Tennis season length: 11 months

Meanwhile, in the realm of middling players in the major American sports:

Jesus Aguilar and the Miami Marlins reached agreement Tuesday on a one-year contract that guarantees him $7.5 million.
The 31-year-old first baseman will get a $7.3 million salary this season. The deal includes a mutual option for 2023 with a $200,000 buyout.

The Kwame Brown Experience is coming to the Bay Area, reports SI:
“Kwame Brown has agreed to a one-year, $7 million deal with Golden State, according to his agent, Mark Bartelstein.”

Free agent pitcher Jordan Lyles and the Baltimore Orioles finalized a $7 million, one-year contract on Saturday night.

Defensive tackle Jarran Reed is joining the Kansas City Chiefs on a one-year deal worth up to $7 million.



Nadal, Federer and Djokovic career prize money to date combined: $412.47 million
Francisco Lindor career salary: $394 million
Mike Trout career salary: $523 million
Alex Rodriguez career salary: $400 million
Steph Curry career salary: $470 million
Pat Mahomes latest contract: 10 years, $450 million


On the other hand:

Jonquel Jones, 2021 WNBA MVP career earnings: $416,150
A'ja Wilson, 2020 WNBA MVP career earnings: $398,422
Elle Belle Donne, 2019 WNBA MVP career earnings: $899,480

Ko Jin Young, #1 ranked LGPA career earnings: $9.4 million
Carly Lloyd, highest paid women's soccer player salary: $518,000


WTA Australian Open winners purse: $2.75 million
Serena Williams career prize money: $95 million
Simona Halep career prize money: $38 million
Sloane Stephens career prize money: $16 million



The bottom line is: If you are a young, American male athletic prodigy, becoming a tennis player is just about the poorest decision you can make from a financial perspective.
Even a middling career as a professional in any of the other big four American sports will yield greater career earnings than an elite tennis career.

Meanwhile, the opposite is true on the women's side. Tennis offers the most earnings potential for female athletes, which is why American Women's tennis remains strong, and will continue to.

You're missing the real problem. Clay courts and tournaments. Men's tennis is a clay sport now that is dominated by controlled baseline shots and returns. We slide on hard courts. We play from the baseline.

Clay provides benefits to development that you simply can't get on other surfaces: fitness and movement, point IQ/construction (ever seen an American or Aussie use the drop shot well?), encourages better technique on groundstrokes.

The typical American player grows up on hard courts and develops into the exact same mold of A-Rod; big serve, big forehand, flat backhand; poor defence and poor returns.

Same mold:

Fritz
Paul
Opelka
Isner
Tiafoe
Sock
Johnson
R Harrison
And older:
Blake
Querrey
Roddick

The two who stand out: Korda and Brooksby. One had a grand slam parent to guide him, the other was small as a kid which encouraged consistency over power.

The reason US Women continue to do well, is because their game doesn't use spin like the men for the main reason that they don't have the same wrist strength; you could win a slam with natural gut in Women's tennis still, and the player that got closest to playing men's tennis—Ash Barty—dominated the game. Not because of power, but because of spin and control. Women's tennis players really struggle to handle a slice backhand paired with a topspin forehand.

If the ATP banned polyester and sped up hard courts I guarantee you the last 20 years would have featured more American success. Not At RG, but at the other three slams and on the hard ATP events.

Furthermore, even though the non-European countries have cottoned on and know the importance of clay in development, you won't find nearly as many clay futures and challengers in the US or Aus (I don't think Aus has a single professional event on clay for the whole year) and that is what kills development. You'll find a clay future and challenger every single week on the Euro challenger and futures tour. Can't compete with that.

 

[norcal]

The bottom line is: If you are a young, American male athletic prodigy, becoming a tennis player is just about the poorest decision you can make from a financial perspective.

It's not even a financial decision because there is no decision for the vast majority of elite American athletes - they have zero access to tennis even if they wanted to play. Basketball, football and baseball are everywhere for kids, golf and tennis are for the rich kids (who can also be siphoned off to the big 3 sports). So yeah, it's a bad proposition on several fronts for American tennis.

 

[spottishwood]

Why are these servebots not even successful on faster surfaces? Oh wait. They did reach WC SF recently.

 

[crimson87]

Tennis became a sport tailor made for Europe due to the short distances they have to travel to play tournaments at a young age.
They can travel by train while in south America is airfare or bust. Incredibly expensive. Maybe something similar happens in the US.

 

[lim]

This is your reason. The future of tennis is alcaraz