Multi-Millionaire Tennis Players Chase the Money
A week ago, Venus Williams flew from winning the major hard court tournament in Dubai to Acapulco, Mexico, to play in a $220,000 Tier III tournament on clay. After winning the title in Acapulco, Venus flew to New York City to compete in the one night $1.2 million purse Billie Jean King Cup. Tennis pros have a relatively short career in which to earn the big bucks, i.e. usually ten to fifteen years maximum. One assumes that Venus received a
hefty six figure guarantee to compete in Acapulco. However, Venus has already earned over $22 million in on-court prize money and many millions more in off-court endorsements. Therefore, given the frequent complaints by top players about the exhausting tournament calendar, it is a little surprising to see Venus make these choices. Other players have also made some surprising scheduling choices such as Rafael Nadal playing in Germany a week after Wimbledon as he did in the past while Roger Federer took a three week "vacation." In the end, one hopes these top players don't exhaust themselves too often by taking the quick money at smaller events. As a result, they could be compromising their chances for more Grand Slam titles which offer prestige, significant prize money, as well as off-court endorsement money.
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