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The Queens of Bling-
How
to succeed in tennis without really trying
By Mike Brewster
 Certain,
seemingly immutable laws of finance have governed the modern
women’s game since the open tennis era began in 1968:
A player has to win tournaments on a regular basis to become
a box-office draw. It’s extremely difficult for non-U.S.
players to get endorsement contracts. And the women’s
tour can provide a very good living for only about the top
100 or so players.
The career of Anna Kournikova cast serious doubt on axioms
one and two, as the Russian superstar earned an estimated
average annual off-court income of $9 million while winning
exactly zero WTA events during her eight years on tour. Now,
Wimbledon and WTA Tour Championship winner Maria Sharapova,
also of Russia, is poised to bury the endorsement myth forever,
landing deals with Nike, Prince and Motorola that could earn
her upward of more than $100 million over the next 10 years.
But what about that third rule? With the regional sponsorship
system implemented by Larry Scott, WTA chairman and chief
executive officer, beefing up the prize money, can prize money
and endorsement dollars trickle down to those players ranked
below 100, so that more women can earn more money playing
tennis?
For years the WTA opted to go with one global sponsor, starting
with Virginia Slims. Scott, however, decided that three are
better than one and that the tour can squeeze more dollars
out of a multi-sponsor arrangement in which different companies
sponsor various regional segments of the circuit. Porsche
signed up as the North American sponsor; Dubai Duty Free,
as the Middle East/Asia-Pacific sponsor and Whirlpool Europe
as the Euro-pean sponsor.
But no matter how you slice it or spin it, opting for a career
as a professional tennis player is a risky choice. Not only
is the annual income uncertain and the competition brutal
(stop for a second and think about whether you would be ranked
in the world’s top 100 dentists, lawyers, or . . . okay,
writers), but then there is what the business school professors
call “opportunity costs.” They are the bypassed
opportunities to pursue another career or build other skills
(go to law school, invent a new computer chip) while chasing
tennis balls all over the world.
There’s also the fact that life as a professional female
tennis player is likely to be far less lucrative than that
of a male player. For example, through November 1, 2004, the
No. 72 ranked woman in the world, American Marissa Irvins,
made $145,262 in earnings. Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, ranked
No. 72 on the ATP Tour, made $287,566. Irvins had gone 26–20
in matches on the WTA Tour. Enqvist didn’t even log
a .500 record, going 14–22 in ATP Tour matches. The
difference between their earnings, not surprisingly, is reflective
of a huge gap between the prize money available on the respective
tours. The available prize money on the ATP Tour—almost
$80 million—dwarfs the $56.5 million available on the
women’s tour.
Why is it important for prize money, endorsements and equipment
deals to go to an expanding nucleus of women players? For
one thing, the women’s tour has, for years, suffered
from a serious lack of depth. The more players—especially
younger players—who are supported by the tour, the more
of them will stick around long enough occasionally to break
through and beat the top players.
Secondly, the four Grand Slams need 128 top-notch, marketable
players. The women’s game has seen enough 6–0,
6–1 first-round wins for the Williams sisters and other
top players. Finally, if the tennis powers-that-be want to
increase tennis television viewers, they need to supply exciting
matches throughout the year—with the chance for upsets
and new faces on the scene. Potential challengers have to
be supported at crucial stages in their career.
“It’s part of the age-old discussion of how many
players should the tour support,” says Ilana Kloss,
CEO of World TeamTennis, who was once ranked as high as No.
2 in the world in doubles. “That number has always been
around 100.”
The good news is that the magic number may be changing. More
players are earning decent salaries on tour than ever before.
Ludmila Cervanova, ranked No. 100, has made $117,734 on the
tour this year, and No. 145, Teryn Ashley of the United States,
made $95,985. Even subtracting the estimated $30,000 for travel
and coaching expenses, these players are making salaries that
make it worthwhile to travel the globe playing a game they
love. In fact, players ranked 175 and above are all making
more than what one might call a living wage, particularly
as players ranked below 150 often travel on a tight budget,
with no coach.
 “As
the WTA keeps growing, there should be more opportunities
for everyone,” says 20-year-old Shenay Perry, ranked
No. 69 in the world, who had about $150,000 in earnings through
November 1 of last year. “There’s room for a lot
of players on the tour.” As for the disparity between
women’s and men’s pay, Perry said that she “finds
it puzzling, but it seems like every week the guys have two
or three pretty big tournaments, where we’ll have one
big one and a couple of smaller ones.”
Endorsements are another issue entirely. Perry gets rackets
from Volkl and clothes from Nike but she doesn’t have
an agent or any endorsements. Equip-ment and clothing deals
are now very difficult for marginal pros to come by.
The vast majority of players, though, aren’t worried
much about hawking cell phones or credit cards. For them,
cracking the top 150 would mean a sustainable life on tour.
No one is waiting for Romania’s Anda Perianu to set
the tour on fire but she’s confident that she can make
a dent in that 100–200 range that means playing tennis
for a living. Perianu, now a fifth-year senior at the University
of Oklahoma, was ranked as high as No. 5 in the NCAA last
spring, and she won the Big 12 singles crown the past two
seasons. She has no sponsors, no equipment deal and no coach.
Because she’s not American, she gets no support from
the United States Tennis Association, nor any coveted wildcards
into WTA qualifiers. In fact, if not for the father of a Sooners’
teammate, who bankrolled her pro debut this summer, Perianu
wouldn’t even have her No. 631 ranking. But Perianu
has a plan.
“I hope to jump a couple of hundred spots every year
which, if you look at the top 100 or 150, that’s how
they typically do it,” Perianu says. If Perianu can
break the top 150, she can stop playing so many small International
Tennis Feder-ation tournaments and go into the qualifying
rounds of WTA tournaments.
Players like Perianu’s countrywoman Raluca Ciulei, ranked
just below 1,000, also cling to the dream as long as the potential
for making a living is there. Recently, Ciulei lost in the
first round of the qualifiers of an ITF $50,000 tournament.
Her paycheck? $70—that’s correct, seven zero.
“In order to make a living, you have to be in the top
150,” says Ciulei. “And you have to remember,
those are also the players who are getting the endorsements,
getting money for wearing shoes and clothing. I’m going
to give it a shot. I’ve come a long way, it’s
been a very hard road, and I’m going to give it my best.”
One avenue that Perry took advantage of last year was World
TeamTennis. While augmenting her income through playing for
the New York Buzz, she also got matches in and belonged to
a team. Other professionals, mostly Europeans, have played
for professional leagues in Germany and Holland. The German
leagues, in particular, pay handsomely compared to the WTT,
even to the point where well-known touring pros have played
for a season or two.
There are other ways for players to make up for lackluster
season earning prize money. A player who becomes No. 1 in
her home country, for example, can earn perks that even some
of the top players don’t have. Jessica Fernandez, the
No. 1 player in Mexico but ranked outside the top 200 in the
world, has her travel, clothing and equipment costs all covered.
The Mexican Tennis Federation pays for her flights and hotels,
and she has an equipment deal with Yonnex and a clothing agreement
with adidas.
Promising junior players with a precocious game are still
salivated over by sports management agents and clothing manufacturers.
A 17-year-old Romanian player, Dia Evtimova, ranked just 612
as of November 15, 2004, is making $50,000 annually from a
French clothing company for wearing the company’s tennis
clothes. Good money if you can get it, but a fantasy for most
women pros outside the top 50.
Of course, traveling around playing tennis for a living isn’t
such a bad deal even if a player never cracks the top 200
and leaves the tour with more memories than dollars. As Kloss
says, “They’re doing what they love, traveling
the world, experiencing things they never would have gotten
to. There are a lot worse things.” |
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