“I didn’t know how I was going to pay my bills,” Taylor Townsend opens up on her financial struggles after her exit from Top-100
Taylor Townsend has openly shared her financial struggles, shedding light on the challenges faced by many professional tennis players.
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Taylor Townsend (Credits: WTA)
Financial difficulties are a common issue for professional athletes, especially in sports like tennis, where players have to cover costs for coaches, physiotherapy, and their basic necessities. Even among great players like Novak Djokovic, financial struggles can be a reality. Taylor Townsend, a professional athlete who recently dropped out of the top 100 in the WTA rankings, has been candid about her own financial difficulties.
Townsend burst onto the professional tennis scene with immense promise, swiftly ascending the rankings. Yet, her journey has been marked by setbacks, including a drop out of the top 100. However, her most challenging period was in 2012 when she plummeted to the 400s, during which time the American grappled with significant financial hardships.“That was the time when I had to go back to playing at the really low level events and I didnt know how I was going to pay my bills. You really don’t see the struggle,” said Townsend to Vox.
As her income dwindled, Townsend found herself wrestling with the daunting challenge of covering her expenses. She confronted the harsh reality of being unable to afford coaching for a week and even recounted instances when she couldn’t meet the financial obligations of paying her coach’s fees and flight expenses.
PTPA’s Executive director Ahmad Nassar is unhappy with the revenue that all tennis associations generate
Ahmad Nassar, the Executive Director of the Professional Tennis Players Association, recently spoke out in a Vox video, highlighting a major issue in tennis. He pointed to the fact that tennis players, especially those ranked outside the top 100, receive a significantly smaller percentage of the sport’s revenue compared to athletes in other sports.
While many sports allocate around 50% of their revenue to athletes, tennis only allocates 18%. This stark difference has left many tennis players feeling frustrated and financially disadvantaged, prompting calls for change within the sport’s financial structure.
Tennis is distinct as an individual sport, which, as Ahmad Nassar pointed out, suggests that players should earn more compared to team sports. However, Nassar presented clear statistics in the video to demonstrate a surprising reality.
In the video, he showed that even the top tennis player’s salary doesn’t match that of the 140th player in the NBA or the 200th player in football, despite tennis being the fourth most-watched sport globally. This striking income disparity highlights the urgent need to reconsider how tennis revenue is shared among its players.
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Laxman Naren
(1457 Articles Published)