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Tennis Cruz  TALK TENNIS  Tennis Articles  Tennis is all about winning, money and nobody remembers finalists!

Tennis is all about winning, money and nobody remembers finalists! Written by Sergio Cruz    In the last twenty years or so, a mantra mostly popularized by certain sports psychologists, that all in sports is about “get out there and have fun”, has had me pretty confused and sometimes even laughing, especially when I hear adult professional athletes making that statement when faced with a tough opponent. Just think how absurd it sounds, when a heavy weight boxer comes up with a canned answer like that! This is no old school or new school thought. Sports at the highest level and tennis in particular, is about winning. The easiest way to see that first hand is by simply going to the ATP tennis website at http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/tournaments/fullcalendar/ And you will see that every year there is a list of all tournaments played more or less like this: DATE TOURNAMENT & LOCATION SURFACE PRIZE MONEY DRAW TICKET INFO WINNERS 12/31/2007 Adelaide, Australia Next Generation Adelaide International International Series Outdoor Hard $465,000 Sgl 32 Dbl 16 Buy Online +61 8 8225 8888 Llodra, Michael Garcia, Martin / Melo, Marcelo 12/31/2007 Doha, Qatar Qatar ExxonMobil Open International Series Outdoor Hard $1,049,000 Sgl 32 Dbl 16 Buy Online 974/440-9601 Murray, Andy Kohlschreiber, Philipp / Skoch, David In the WINNERS box the only names you will see are the singles winner and the doubles winners. It would be nice to have a mention of who the finalists were, but there is “not enough space” in the box! Recently, Andy Murray made this statement at the US Open 2008: "I want to try to win it. I don't want to lose in the semifinals, when I watched the opening of the tournament on the first night session, and you see all the winners of the U.S. Open, you realize that winning is what really, really counts. That's what I'm going to try and do. I understand getting to the semis is a great achievement, but I want to go a little bit further." Way to go Andy! If he is a little bit like me, as a kid I hated to lose even at playing marbles! But of course winning is not everything, participating is wonderful too but, let me tell you a little secret, winning is just heaven! The more you win the better you get. Sure this kind of focus from the mental point of view is a tough one because in the end if you lose, the whole china set will be shattered and that is why psychologists created the mantra “get out there and have fun”. I would rather get out there and give them hell and at the end have fun. If the china set gets broken, I had great fun competing like a devil and all pieces will be picked up, glued together with competitors glue and in one or two days I will be fine and ready to give them hell again! Oh yeah, take Nicolay Davydenko or Andy Roddick for example, these two fellows have been drubbed over and over by Roger Federer, do you think they had much fun losing 12 and 15 times each?…and that next time they go on the court against Federer they are going there to have fun? Surely not! They want Federers scalp, really bad, period. On the other hand just think about the millions of dollars those two players alone have put into Roger Federers bank accounts? Would you have fun doing that for anyone? Of course tennis players on the court do not play for that dirty little word called “money” , but I am sure those wheels are spinning upstairs when the finalist of the US Open 2008 receives $1.5 million (plus $1 million in bonus prize money) and the loser on the first round makes $18,500 thousand . Furthermore, there is the money players receive from commercial endorsements and bonuses (in the millions of dollars exceeding by far their career total prize money) from clothing and racket contracts, that are tied to rankings and performance at grand slams such as the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US Open. 2008 US Open Prize Money Schedule Singles (Men & Women - 128 Draws) Amount Totals  Winners $ 1,500,000    Runners-Up 750,000    Semifinalists 320,000    Quarterfinalists 160,000    Round of 16 80,000    Third Round 46,000    Second Round 30,000    First Round 18,500    TOTAL (128) $ 7,050,000 $ 14,100,000 DOUBLES (Per Team, Men & Women - 64 Draws)   Amount Totals   Winners $ 420,000     Runners-Up 210,000     Semifinalists 105,000     Quarterfinalists 50,000     Round of 16 25,000     Second Round 15,000     First Round 10,000     TOTAL (64) $ 1,800,000 $ 3,600,000 MIXED DOUBLES (Per Team - 32 Draw)   Amount Totals   Winners $ 150,000     Runners-Up 70,000     Semifinalists 30,000     Quarterfinalists 15,000     Second Round 10,000     First Round 5,000     TOTAL $ 500,000 $ 500,000 MEN'S AND WOMEN'S QUALIFYING (128 Draws)   Amount Totals   Third Round Losers (16) $ 8,000     Second Round Losers (32) 5,625     First Round Losers (64) 3,000     TOTAL $ 500,000 $ 1,000,000   Total Championship Events $19,200,000   Total for Champions Invitational $ 385,000   Player per diem $ 1,072,000   TOTAL PLAYER COMPENSATION $20,657,000 *Prize Money could exceed $23.2 million as the top three finishers in the Olympus US Open Series may earn up to an additional $2.6 million in bonus money at the US Open. The men's and women's winners of the Olympus US Open Series will play for the bonus prize money at the US Open. For example, should the champions of the Olympus US Open Series also win the US Open singles title, they would each earn $2.5 million ($1.5 million in US Open prize money plus the Olympus US Open Series bonus prize money of $1 million).

And since we are talking about prize money, the share the players receive, a mere $23.2 million, is paltry money compared with the whopping $195 million the USTA takes home from the US Open:

“The money-spinning competition generates an estimated $195 million, about 85% of the United States Tennis Association's (USTA) revenue for the year, the rest of which comes largely from membership dues. Across the Atlantic, the French Open brings in a little less--an estimated $170 million last year.”

Now if anyone tries to tell me that tennis is not about winning and just about having fun, he must be from another planet!

Sergio Cruz

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