Change of guard in Tennis
Tennis is played in over 200 countries. The Original body of promotion and control the International Tennis Federation maintained Tennis [ITF] as an amateur sport. In 1969 the confrontation began between amateurism and professionalism. This now has reached the point of no return and the professional bodies are dominating the game structure, events, formats, players and the world rankings. In reality Professional bodies have reduced the 100 year old ITF’s control it had over Tennis.
The Association of Tennis professionals [ATP] for men and Womens Tennis Association [WTA] started as one professional body around 1975. Subsequently the WTA went on its own on the issue of equal prize money. Until that time it was the International Tennis Federation [ITF] which controlled every angle of the game. Today the ITF’s role has diminished to junior development, junior coaches education, conducting ‘Futures’ as bridging events for professional events and the DAVIS-CUP and FED-CUP. Their inflexibility to the evolving times has proved to be their folly.
Player’s freedom
Under the ITF control, players had little or no freedom. Today the professional bodies have changed this. The validity of Local Associations which are affiliated to ITF and their controls on players are a thing of the past. The professional bodies of Tennis act like any other world professional body in academics. It is no more possible for any nation to demand the services of a player for their team. Some nations suspend players if they refuse to play in the national team. It is only valid locally. Globally professional associations ignore it. Some reconciliation may be initiated by the professional bodies but by and large, local suspensions are ignored by professional bodies.
Swiss fate this year
Switzerland won the coveted Davis-Cup in 2014. This year they lost in the very first round to Belgium. The Belgian team had four players in the world ranking between 90 and 150. The best Swiss player in the team this year is Finnish born Henri Laaksonen ranked 238. The other three Swiss players were below that, one, is as low as 531. The best Swiss players are Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka. They are in the top five of the world ranking but they did not play for the country this year as they did in 2014. They decided to concentrate on the professional individual circuit. What can Switzerland do? Nothing, nothing at all! This is the power that the professional bodies now have. Switzerland will have to fight out to remain in the world group next year. I doubt this team will succeed.
Fed-Cup in trouble?
It is not only Switzerland that is in dire straits. Many of the multiple Davis-Cup winning countries are now in the second and third tier of the qualifying groups, unable get the best players to play for the country. Davis-Cup is the flag ship of ITF. It is in trouble. For ITF it does not stop there. The ladies version of the inter-nation team championships, the FED-CUP, is also an ITF event and there are moves by the WTA to start its own Team championships soon.
Over 300 players earn millions
Tennis professional bodies have survived a good 40 years now and have the maturity in looking after the financial side of the players. This has made the professional bodies very strong. An Asian player ranked in the 50’s of doubles, earned over three million dollars last year. Another male singles player with a 200 plus position, took two million home. Not to mention the additional sponsorship money that comes as bonuses.
This was the issue when ITF controlled Tennis. Players had to spend and could not even cover their expenses of development. Event owners made the money and it did not go down to the players. The Wimbledon finalist in 1967 got 33 pound sterling! Wimbledon earnings were always in the hundreds of millions. The money distribution was the cause for ITF losing ground in Tennis control. It is said that Football has the best money distribution for players. Excess of two thousand footballers make in the tune of few millions annually and another few thousand take home close to one million dollars each. The ‘big guns’ in football, earn mega money.
Match rights are ‘good product’ to own
Big money in sports comes from media demand. What are the figures? A match will be played and finished and that match will be available to viewers for decades in the media channels. A good ‘match right’ has become an estate. It is worth owning the rights of a good match, for a period in time. The internet access and 24 hour TV will bring back the money many folds over the years. Classic matches in Tennis and in other sports today are as appealing as Hollywood cinema classics. If the selling options are available it will bring big money.
Indiana Wells is on now
Player popularity is what makes an event good. The strength of the player line-up is the ‘crowd puller’ to the venue and the rating it gets in media. The world rankings of the players gives it a further boost. Today’s sport is somewhat like Hollywood or Bollywood films. The stars are the appeal than the production. The enhancement we see in the game now is certainly due to professionalism of the players. They are able to earn the money they spend in development easily. Most of the matches now are cliff hangers in entertainment.
Indiana-Wells is on now in the USA and this is the first mega money event after the Australian-Open. Could this event be the reason why Wawrinka and Federer opted not to play the Davis-Cup for Switzerland? It is difficult to grasp this situation and it makes one wonder how it could be so. Meanwhile the ‘star studded’ Indiana Wells 2015 is running to a packed house, from day one. This is the impact comes from the change of hands in the global Tennis control- The professional revolution in Tennis.
-George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, ITF and USPTR; National, Davis Cup and Federation Cup
Coach–gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com-