Relaxing by the pool in St.Tropez France

«En ce qui concerne l'an dernier j'ai joué parce que j'adore ce tournoi mais je n'étais pas prêt. Après Roland-Garros, je sentais que mon genou n'était plus en état. Rosol a joué un dernier set incroyable, peut-être aurait-il aussi gagné si j'avais été en bonne santé. C'est le sport, c'est comme ça. Mais l'an dernier c'était trop pour moi, j'avais trop mal. Jouer sous infiltration dès le premier tour, ça n'existe pas.»

Taxes
 
Let's start from the end, to be exact—from taxes. If you think tennis players don’t pay them you are deeply mistaken. Let’s take Australian Open as an example. After losing in the first round this year players received 27,600 AUD—about 20,000 euros. And the prize money were increased only because the players complained about it.
 
In Australia the tax is not fixed. The tax sum is calculated based on the net earnings of a player. So you need to provide checks or papers confirming your expenditure during the participation at the Australian Open. Of course you can try to inflate your costs but it’s risky—you can be exposed when the data are verified.
 
As for the other Grand Slam tournaments the tax rate at Roland Garros is 15%, at Wimbledon—20%, at the US Open—30%.
 
Travelling
 
Now let’s break expenses down. Usually it starts with travelling expenses. It’s a long flight to Melbourne and I’d definitely book business class paying for it out of my own pocket. It is approx. 3,000 euros.
 
I used to travel economy class but the age takes its toll on me. After economy flight I wouldn’t be able to straighten up properly and train for three or four days.
 
If you travel with a trainer and physiotherapist you buy tickets for them—but in economy class. That’s another 3,000 euros. Now I was worked with someone of Brad Gilbert caliber I’d probably have to book business class for him as well. The more famous coach you have the more it costs.
Player’s team
 
There are different ways to pay your team members. I pay them weekly. The coach gets 1,000 euros per week plus 15 percent of the prize money earned by me (after taxes). The trainer gets 1,000 euros per week—and it’s a fairly small sum. I’m lucky the trainer agrees to work with me for it.
I heard that when Gilbert worked with Andy Roddick he had no fixed salary at all but was paid out of Roddick’s prize money. All these details are pre-specified in the contract.
 
Hotels
 
There are different systems at Grand Slams and ATP tournaments. At the ATP events the organizers usually book a room for each player—either for 5 days or till the day following your loss. The last couple of months I shared the room with my trainer—just to save money.
 
Bust most often the coach and the trainer share the room booked for them by the player. Now if you have a girlfriend travelling with you it’s the whole different situation, you can’t save money with her. That’s why a lot of players believe having a girlfriend is a luxury. (smiling)
 
As for Grand Slams the player’s hotel costs are covered by the organizers on a daily basis. For example, at Roland Garros you receive about 250 euros a day. With this money you can book a not very large room at fairly average four-star hotel.
 
Many tennis players ranked Top-20 or Top-30 prefer to stay at the hotels where the room costs 300 euros and more paying the difference out of their pocket. Why? For example, you have a match scheduled at 11 am which means you need to have a breakfast at 8 or 9 am. And at this time the restaurants in the most hotels are overcrowded, you're wasting too much time just to order an omelet. As a result you start nervous you have run out of time.
 
That’s why it’s better to stay at smaller, more cozy hotels. After all, what you need the most is a basic comfort—good sleep in your bed and AC working fine but not as loud as a diesel. Otherwise it will be impossible to prepare for the match properly. You haven’t slept enough. Then how do you plan to run for five sets? Had fried sausages for breakfast? Ok, but do not forget that you can take toilet break only twice during a Grand Slam match.
 
Food
 
This is extremely important and different tournaments work in different ways. For example, at the French Open you receive 37 euros a day for food. By the way Roland Garros is one of the most players-friendly tournaments. Even if you are eliminated from the tournament you still have food money adding up on your accreditation card with a special chip for three or four days.
 
Now about the prices. At the French Open’s players restaurant the main dish on average costs 12 euros, salad—9 euros. That means for 37 euros you can eat a maximum of twice a day. And sometimes it goes like this—you prepare for the match, you take a small portion, you pay for it, eat and go to play. Then the match is repeatedly interrupted because of rain, and almost every time you need to "refuel" yourself—and you pay more and more. Of course is does not happen every day but still…
 
In addition you have to pay for the coach and the trainer. If your team understand your situation you also save. Of course they won’t go fasting but they won’t order a 300-euro dish either. But that's in theory. In practice not everyone cares how much all it costs. I’m lucky to have my current team.
 
Tennis gear
 
Thank God, I get everything free from my sponsors. But some guys have to pay for shoes, apparel, racquets etc. Although compared with other expenses that’s not much—3,000-4,000 euros a year.
The laundry at Grand Slam tournaments is free but at Barcelona and Dusseldorf we spent 60-70 euros a week.
 
Stringing the racquets has its nuances too. At last year's Roland Garros it cost 20 euros to string a racquet during the qualifying tournament and 25 euros during the main tournament. That’s like with the French tax system—the more successful you are the more you are charged.
 
As you know you can’t have just one racquet for the tournament. Andy Murray has 9 racquets strung for each match plus two or three racquets for training days before the competition. So by the end of the tournament the costs could prove to be considerable.
 
Public appearance
 
Of course you want to spend some money on yourself—your private life, family—or put something aside for a rainy day. That’s not something directly related to tennis but still… If a famous actor arrives at an event he has to think of a good car, be well dressed, right? The same goes for tennis players who attend tennis parties and sponsor presentations. If you go by a tram and are dressed poorly they’ll call you stingy. But I must confess: I buy expensive clothing brands mostly during the sales. So yes, I’m a mega-stingy, a sort of Scrooge McDuck.
 
Training
 
Recently I flew to train to Monte Carlo, because it’s impossible to do so in Moscow. The only clay courts maintained on a good level are on the other side of the city. To get there and then get to a good therapist you need to spend hours at the traffic jams.
 
So even Monte Carlo—in comparison with Moscow—is a viable option in terms of time and nerves. Of course you still need to pay to your coach and trainer in hope that all the training will pay off in the future. You have to train a lot but, unfortunately, it's not a guarantee of future earnings.
 
Manager
 
I am lucky I have my manager. Though, in fact, he’s not exactly a manager, he’s the one who’s been helping me with contracts and other niceties for more than 18 years and never required any fees for it. From an early age he repeated to me that I should not spend a lot, show off or go crazy. This allowed me to save a little for the future.
 
It is also necessary to take into account how much money my father had spent on my training before I started to produce some results. It is hundreds of thousands dollars. For a year or two I was earning just enough to have a good coach who, as I hoped, would help me get to the next level where I could really make profit. Again, it was a kind of investment in the future.
 
Besides, I was very lucky to have a manager who really cared about my savings. The same can’t be said of managers of many other players. I know a player who has earned 1.9 million dollars in his career and a lion share of this money went to the sponsor who helped him in his childhood but included a clause on his share in player’s earnings in the sponsor agreement.
 
Conclusion
 
So imagine you played for 10 years and earned 1.9 million dollars. You paid 20% on taxes so on average your income was 150,000 dollars per year. Your yearly expenditures amounted for 100,000 minimum. That means you earned about 5,000 dollars a month. That’s the money you are living on being considered a fairly successful Top-100 player at that.