(Former) Tennis Pros Run Tournaments
There are many former tennis stars who are involved with the sport as coaches and/or TV tennis commentators, e.g. Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Sue Barker, Tracy Austin, etc. However, there continues to be a trend for former tennis greats to become involved in the business side of the sport as agents, e.g. Carlos Costa is Rafael Nadal’s manager. However, there are many former tennis greats who have
stayed involved with professional tennis by becoming tournament promoters. For example, Butch Buchholz (Key Biscayne/Miami, Florida), Donald Dell (Washington, DC), Charlie Pasarell and Ray Moore (Indian Wells, California), Jane Stratton and Raquel Giscafre (San Diego) have managed tournaments for years. On the Grand Slam level, Paul McNamee was the tournament director for the Australian Open for years and continues as the director of the Hopman Cup in Perth. At Roland Garros, former French tennis player, Stephane Simian, was the tournament director of the French Open for seven years until this year. More recently, Jim Courier has launched another “Senior Tour” for men, i.e. Outback Champions Tour, while Richard Krajicek (Amsterdam), Goran Ivanisevic (Zagreb) and Paul Haarhuis (Senior event in the Netherlands) just to name a few, have become tournament promoters. On the women’s side, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is probably the most high-profile former player to become a tournament director, i.e. the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event in Barcelona. These transitions to the “other side of the net” are a logical way for former champions to remain involved with professional tennis while leveraging their experience and contacts in professional tennis.
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