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Originally Posted by ibreak4coffee
AJ on point as usual.
The ATP aggressively markets the top stars at the expense of the journeymen and lower ranked players. Its the NBA business model translated for tennis - or at least that of most American sports where the star culture was perfected. It fits tennis perfectly as everyone plays for themselves - except that where a journeyman in a US sport makes a great living, in tennis they barely get by.
I assume the ATP and tournament organizers realize though that gradually bankrupting anyone outside of the top 50 will severely limit the ability of the Grand Slams and Masters tournaments to populate a quality 64 or 128 draw - which last time I checked make them much more compelling as sporting competitions.
And god forbid travel costs continue to rise as oil gets scarcer and airlines continue to merge raising ticket prices - we'll have in a worse case scenario a series of regional tours for all but the best players. Personally I could never stomach the possibility I won't see Pere Riba at the US Open one day
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The ATP and tournament directors don't give a crap to be honest. They work against the players, not for them. Well when the ATP was formed, the leader was ex-IMG that alone should show what structure they choose to adopt.
The lowest golfers can make a very good living. At the same time there is regionalisation of the tour, which makes sense. The ones that bitch about summer clay events in Europe cause it's allegedly hardcourt season, yet think it's ok for Americans not to play the spring ones.
Check out the ladder to success article that shows how hard it is, naturally it shouldn't be easy at all. There are enough barriers and very good players fighting for the promised land.
Unless you're from a major country or insanely rich like Fognini or Gulbis, then it's obvious enough.