Stories Sport Art Tells

Jimmy Conners, Mervin Honig

Is It A Racquet? From Rags To Riches In Tennis Today

by John Davis

In 1968 the sport of tennis entered the Open Era, and tournaments worldwide rewarded winners and runners-up with prize money.  Amateur tennis was for the most part relegated to junior tournaments and college competition.

Top-ranking amateurs before 1968 were allowed a stipend of $10 a day for meals, and were reimbursed by the U.S. Tennis Association for gas mileage between the top tournaments of the circuit, most of which took place on the east coast.  Players literally competed for the love of the game, with some glory along the way if you were good enough.  The best players often turned "pro" and barnstormed across the country, playing in high-school gyms for rather paltry rewards.  Jack Kramer was one of the first organizers of the pre-Open Era pro tour, and it was a rather haphazard affair with uncertain success at each stop.

But today's lure of a pot of gold at the end of the tennis rainbow has inspired a new generation of tennis talent.  The United States and Australian supremacy on the world tennis stage was eroded by upstart newcomers from all around the globe beginning in the 1970s.  Ilie Nastase and Ion Tiriac of Rumania were the forerunners of a herd of new (and very good) European players who now dominate the rankings.   In a rather alarming turnaround, there are no American players in the top eight world rankings in men's tennis, nor are there any American women in the top 24 worldwide.  Russian, Slavic, and European players dominate, with a small number of Asian and Latin American stars in the rankings rosters.

Is money the main attraction for the avid, and perhaps avaricious, players of today?  Wimbledon, now in session, offers a stunning $23 million in prize money this year.  And tournament winnings are dwarfed by endorsement contracts for the top players, many of whom are multi-millionaires in their late 20's. 

During the Australian supremacy, tennis was almost a national obligation.  A toddler who showed promise with a racquet was nursed through tennis academies and coached without respite, and the results were clear during the years of Rod Laver (who won two Grand Slams), Rosewall, Emerson, Hoad, Newcombe, and other Aussie greats of the 50s and 60s.  That sort of non-stop tennis diet produces great players, and that is the strategy of many nations in the shadow of the former Soviet bloc.  It also represents a chance for a budding star or starlet to travel, to experience a world beyond their imagination, and to bring glory to the homeland.  Thus the game has taken on a very serious tenor for many players who are sponsored by their governments.

Whatever the inspiration, the game of tennis has surged in popularity worldwide, and one must applaud the new international character.  The competition today is ferocious, and the schedule for top players almost impossibly gruelling.  It is perhaps a bit naive to think that the love of the game is the main inspiration, but it does seems so when a star weeps openly on the dias as he or she holds aloft a huge winner's trophy.  So what if it is filled with dollars or pounds or francs?  It is a just reward for years of training and hard work, but indeed that labor has the enjoyable undertone of enjoyment.  After all, tennis is a game . . . isn't it?