The Loneliest Place On Earth - Tennis Wildnerness

In a time where this forum is littered with r£tarded threads about Andy and Rafa and the slow minded individuals who poison the forum with nothing but crap comments. If our local moron from the boxing thread made it over with what can be described as the most out of touch comments ever. Despite the Cryptic Thread which continues to be a joy and time out for those who must look at the threads and think 'one day I might comment on something worthwhile' so I shall try to find a subject that relates to all.

The tennis wilderness. For me it takes enormous mental strength and motivation to travel to tournaments which lack the prestige and TV attention that Slams and Master events do. Occassionally you may get the 500 events that may make TV if there is an interest in a particular player. For any tennis player in the WTA or ATP it must be hard. Sometimes a loss of form or even injury can impact greatly on any player. Take examples of these players:

Sam Querrey.

2010 he won 4 titles and had a match record of 39/24. Prize money of $1,074,561. Now that is good going. He made the top 20.
2011 0 titles and a match record of 12/15. Prize money of $321,222. He struggled with injuries and required elbow surgery. Not a good year.

Roll on 2012 and he is ranked 103 in the world. He is 24 and has time on his hands to rectify the situation. No longer do you get the wild cards or entry to main draws of Master and 500 events. He will now have to go through the hardships of qualifiers. These are the events that can drain any confidence a player might have. Sam has the unfortunate luck of being American and with players like Roddick, Fish, Young, Harrison, Blake and an emerging Sock, he doesn't have anything to help with his form. Not even the luck of Davis Cup matches which are afforded to other players of struggling nations (GB step forward).

Tommy Haas.

Many posters will warm to this guy. Such a lovely talent. SHBH fans will purr at the shots he could make of the BH side. He is now 34. A former world no.2 and is part of the 'old' guard that florished with Federer, Roddick, Hewitt, Safin, Nalbandian. A time when Sampras and Agassi came to the end of their Slam winning habits. Tommy's story is such a sad one. I really do hope someone one day will serialise his career because it is one of sadness and then happiness. In 2002 Tommy was nearing the top of the mens game. He had a Masters title under his belt. Made the Semi-Finals of the Australian Open. Tragedy struck when his parents were involved with a car accident which nearly claimed their lives. His Dad was in a coma and Tommy the doting son took a break from tennis to care for his parents. What a sacrifice. On top of that Tommy suffered a major shoulder injury during his attempt to come back to the game which required surgery. Tommy made a return to the game full time in 2004.

Tommy is ranked 137 in the world. He played some lovely tennis in 2009 where he nearly broke Federer fans heart with a straight set win over him at Roland Garros. He lost in 5 sets. Haas wowed the crowds at Wimbledon that year when he beat Cilic in 5 sets in a thrilling encounter. He made the semi finals and lost to that man Federer again. Tommy became a father in November 2010 and remarked 'I would love to continue playing long enough for my daughter to see me play' his story should touch the hearts of many fans out there. This is a guy not driven by greed or ambition, but a single goal which to some doesn't seem 'grand' in the scheme of things, but makes you realise that there are some special players in the game even though they are not at the top.

Dinara Safina.

The younger sister of tennis's enigmatic Marat Safin. Dinara came through behind a wave of talented Russian players. Sharapova, Dementieva, Kuznetsova, Zvonareva to name a few. She made her first Grand Slam final at the French Open in 2008 losing to Ana Ivanovic and claimed Silver at the Beijing Games. In 2009 she made further in roads by making the Australian Open where she was defeated by Serena Williams. She then made number 1 in the world in April and then made her 3rd Grand Slam final by losing to Kuznetsova and double faulting on match point and I could remember the tears. Since her time at number one she was accused of being a 'choker' and given the lack of depth in the womens game as the Williams sisters can show up and win as and when. A serious back injury has kept her out of the game. She is ranked 187 and refuses to give despite talk of retirement. Even though she hasn't played this year, she still has the belief she can come back from the wilderness.

They deserve enormous credit for hanging in their, despite the lack of titles, attention and wealth that comes with tennis.

It does really make you realize that tennis is not all glamorous as it is portrayed through the lives of the top players. To be honest I didn't know if Safina was still playing. But good on her, I hope she gets back to the top. There was so much pressure on her, it was horrible.
Sometimes, this gives us more inspiration than looking at the top players. The will to carry on even though things are bad.

Nice article. It's a tough, lonely job being a lowly-ranked tennis player - travelling at the back of planes, staying in cheap accommodation and playing in front of a handful of spectators far from home.
It must be an unbelieveable thrill for young players when they achieve a bit of success and suddenly find themselves, first, qualifying for the qualifying, then getting automatic entry into the big tournaments, then getting seeded for the first time and then - hopefully - getting that first title.
Even for the comparatively successful - who hover in the lower reaches of the top 100 for most of their careers - there is the hope that the one great season beckons.

No, tennis is one of the easiest jobs in the World and anyone able to earn a living from it is very fortunate.

I'm sure the players you mention know how much better off they are than working a checkout counter or cleaning a geriatric peron.

They do this out of choice, they are very happy to make that choice and good luck to them.

I am sure they do realise how fortunate they are BB. When you compare tennis with other sports, the personal investment required for their development is vast. Not only the financial aspect, but how much personally they sacrifice eg giving up personal friendships or family stability and then not to make it near the top must be hard. Makes me certainly appreciate them more. Take football. My Dad was a budding youth player and was offered trials at Chelsea and Crystal Palace. He turned it down in favour of working as youth apprenticeships did not exist. Even though tennis players are centrally funded, it isn't something that lasts like it does in football.

The Haas story is truly remarkable. I think it would be hard to find anything similar in today's spots.

I don't want to appear sour but I just don't see the hardship. Tommy Haas had a rough break with his parents but that's just life, not tennis.

They all live a compartively easy life which they chose in preference to any other option. They get paid for playing a game. How bad can that be?

Well I know myself I wouldn't fancy the air miles, hours upon hours of training. They get the benefit of a life after they hang their racquets up. You look at 5 year olds hitting ball after ball. I know when I was 5 I wasn't doing that or any of me friends were doing that.

James Blake, Lleyton Hewitt, Magnus Norman, Robin Soderling, many careers blighted by injury, but the love for Tennis brings them back.

The Challenger and Futures circuit is even harder than the ATP/WTA tour.

One story is Vesana Dolonts, who flew 18+ hours and landed in NY for a match with Venus Williams, 4 hours before the match, lost the match and went home in a day or two. It is not glamorous at this level.

The Challenger circuit is dreadful. Stories of umpires not showing up, courts in use on match days, not much in the way of a purse, as well as playing, acting as a line judge.

Great article LK. Wishing them all luck.

legendkillarV2 wrote:The Challenger circuit is dreadful. Stories of umpires not showing up, courts in use on match days, not much in the way of a purse, as well as playing, acting as a line judge.

I didn't know it was like that - sounds dreadful!

BTW, nice article lkv2!

It is that bad reckoner.

Some players even reported theft of their equipment. I have no idea how a tour can be run so badily.

Sounds pretty hopeless - I suppose this is what happens when only the very elite are looked after by the sport.

Imagine getting your stuff nicked - what a nightmare.

That's why you find players who fall into the tennis wildnerness who were ranked in the top 100 give the challenger tour a wide berth.

It is beyond grass root level having all your stuff at court side. I am sure some players have a get away cars!

For Challenger tour, perhaps the National Tennis associations should take on the onus of development of the sport, rather than ATP.

It can be integrated into the overall National Sport policies of each country.

It does create hierarchy of different sports based popularity, but may be worth a controlled experiment.

Very good point there LF.

I think globally the ITF needs set standards for the countries that host these events and have them maintained to a certain standard. That way least we would know which countries were committed to the game of tennis.

Can I recommend 'Double Fault' by Lionel Shriver? She who wrote 'We need to talk about Kevin'. It is about life on the challenger/satellite tour and focuses on a couple and what the obsession for perfection from one and the jealousy of each other does to their relationship. It is very stark, as you might expect from this author, but it is quite an interesting read and certainly covers many of the issues in this thread.

How weird that Haas and Querrey have come so far since I wrote this

time please wrote:Can I recommend 'Double Fault' by Lionel Shriver? She who wrote 'We need to talk about Kevin'. It is about life on the challenger/satellite tour and focuses on a couple and what the obsession for perfection from one and the jealousy of each other does to their relationship. It is very stark, as you might expect from this author, but it is quite an interesting read and certainly covers many of the issues in this thread.

I love that book! I think I might dig it out and read it again. It's not really about tennis though is it?

hawkeye wrote:

time please wrote:Can I recommend 'Double Fault' by Lionel Shriver? She who wrote 'We need to talk about Kevin'. It is about life on the challenger/satellite tour and focuses on a couple and what the obsession for perfection from one and the jealousy of each other does to their relationship. It is very stark, as you might expect from this author, but it is quite an interesting read and certainly covers many of the issues in this thread.

I love that book! I think I might dig it out and read it again. It's not really about tennis though is it?

It is about obsession, striving for recognition and perfection and what you do when you lose the thing that you feel identifies (I know that is not the word I am looking for but have a sort of temporary dyslexia atm!) you. Oh and it just happens to have tennis as the subtext, and not the glamorous world of the top 50, but life on the satellite circuit.

It has a stark and uncomfortable look at relationships and the complexity of them - and the fiercely competitive protagonists, who happen to be professional tennis players and a married couple provide the drama.

TP, you've sold it to me, sounds intriguing, where's the Kindle....

Haas and Querrey were, no doubt, spurred on by this interesting post. I know many would give their eye teeth for the chance to play sport for a living, but I reckon that tennis is about the hardest and toughest of the sporting professions.
Take this sort of scenario. You don't know when you're going to play cause you're fourth match on on a rainy day. You're hanging around in the locker room, the match ahead of you gets to match point but they're still playing an hour later.
You finally get on. It's cold, dark and windy. The place is a quarter full. Your ranking is on the line and the guy at the other end is waiting to knock your block off.
You get knocked out and it's a scramble to arrange a flight home, book next week's accommodation and start all over again.