Tennis is a sport played across the world and in almost every country. Players from 9 different countries represent the current top 10 of the ATP. But it is not a secret that the best avenues and opportunities for success in tennis are found in the more developed nations with wealthier federations.
Even in richer countries with well-funded federations, it is often only children from wealthier families who go on to enjoy careers in the sport. But what are the entry barriers to the sport and the cost disparity among different nations?
1. Equipment Costs
Assuming the cost of a good new tennis racquet is the same across the world, a new racquet costing $200 dollars would be approximately 25% of one’s yearly salary in a low-income country and about 0.44% of one’s annual income in a high-income nation. In comparison, a soccer ball can be bought for $10, and 11 people can play with it.
2. Infrastructure
The number of tennis courts available per capita varies from country to country. 24 countries in the world account for 95% of all the tennis courts in the world. Australia’s share of the world population is 0.33% yet it holds 4.2% of all the tennis courts in the world while India with 17.7% of the global population accounts for only 5.1% of all tennis courts.
Tennis courts are also expensive to maintain and require frequent resurfacing and watering as in the case of clay courts and irrigation, use of fertilizers, mowing, rolling among others for grass courts.
3. Lessons
Good coaches are hard to find especially if one does not reside in the more developed and wealthier countries. What might take months to learn if one is self-taught could be learned in a few weeks under the guidance of a good coach.
In addition, tennis lessons are expensive and besides paying the coach one must also account for court charges, transportation and sometimes membership fees as well. Tennis is mostly an urban sport in many countries and it would be difficult to access tennis courts much less coaches the further away one moves out of the cities.
4. Intangibles
If the costs of playing tennis come down, more tennis courts become available to the public, and a good coaching eco-system is put in place, there is no reason why we might not see more tennis players coming from of a more diverse range of countries and backgrounds.
As more and more players from different countries reach and succeed on the pro tour, the media will catch on to it and others will be inclined to pick up the sport.
Main photo from Getty Images.
