Quote:
Originally Posted by Groundhog
Actually, the mention of money reminds me - I've heard that tennis tourneys have some of the most unbalanced winnings in pro sports, with the top getting the vast majority of the pool and the rest getting (relative) peanuts. I know it's been mentioned as one of the issues mentioned in recent years locally re: the lack of young up-and-comers.
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I would certainly think it plays a role at the junior level or in the early stages of a pro career, but i somehow doubt that money alone is what is keeping the No30 from getting on the Top Level. Everybody reaching the Top32 at a Grand Slam gets 6 figures, best i could find on google 42 players earned more than 1 mio US$ in 2017 (for the life of me couldn't find any 2018 figures. There is a running ranking on multiple sites for 2019, sor some weird reason no 'archived' ranking for 2018). And that doesn't include any sponsorship money or other stuf/funding they might get from their federation for example. It's certainly a bigger gap than some sports (a common comparison i saw was Golf), but doesn't seem such a prohibitive factor, even when you factor in the costs (coaches, travel mostly).
I mean, the gap between the Big 3 and everybody else is obviously staggering, but does it really matter past a certain point ? Equipment isn't really that much of a difference maker i think (again, past a certain level) and training/coaching/medical care is certainly giving some advantage but it's not like there are only 10 great options in each of those fields to pick from.
There's plenty of sports (most winter sports, many track and field disciplines or swimming) with decent profile where you have Top20 athletes essentially having to rely on institutional funding and/or not actually being pure professionals versus the Top stars making big money from sponsorship.
To me it seems like Tennis has a comparatively low 'randomness' factor with how the game is played, the way scoring works, with the way seeding works at tournaments and how the season is structured. Doesn't really seem all that conducive to upsets/turnover.