{"id":90510,"date":"2025-09-13T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T10:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=90510"},"modified":"2025-09-12T22:59:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T02:59:40","slug":"1-million-to-go-pro-dominic-thiem-exposes-the-shocking-cost-behind-every-junior-tennis-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/09\/13\/1-million-to-go-pro-dominic-thiem-exposes-the-shocking-cost-behind-every-junior-tennis-star\/","title":{"rendered":"$1 Million to Go Pro? Dominic Thiem Exposes the Shocking Cost Behind Every Junior Tennis Star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Grand Slam champion Dominic Thiem, who <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/10\/23\/dominic-thiem-grit-glory\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">retired in 2024<\/a> with 17 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/10\/27\/top-5-matches-thiems-career\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">career titles<\/a>, gave an extensive interview to the Business of Sport podcast this month. In the podcast, Thiem <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dw_sports\/status\/1963967005129892331\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reflected on his career<\/a>, the injuries that forced his retirement at age 31, and the future of tennis\u2014a sport currently <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/09\/09\/is-mens-tennis-boring-current-state-of-atp-tour\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">defined on the men\u2019s side<\/a> by European stars Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner.<\/p>\n<p>The most compelling part of the conversation wasn\u2019t about his forehand or fitness\u2014it was Thiem\u2019s blunt assessment of the economics of junior tennis, and the daunting costs required to craft an athlete capable of competing at the highest levels of the ATP and WTA Tours.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jagiGhQgdww\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>$1 Million to Go Pro<\/h2>\n<p>The financial barrier to entry in tennis has become one of the sport\u2019s defining debates. Governing bodies\u2014the ATP, WTA, ITF, and the four Grand Slams\u2014have all acknowledged the issue and launched initiatives like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/news\/baseline-december-2024\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ATP\u2019s Baseline program<\/a>. Player groups such as the Professional Tennis Players Association have also raised alarms over the high travel, coaching, and physio costs young players face, compared with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/tennis\/story\/_\/id\/35414286\/the-stunning-financial-reality-high-cost-pro-tennis\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">relatively meager prize money<\/a> on the ITF and Challenger Tours.<\/p>\n<p>Thiem put real numbers to it: \u201c$80,000 to $100,000 per year\u201d from ages 13 to 18. Over that span, a player\u2019s family or backers easily invest close to $1 million before the athlete even establishes themselves on tour. For most families, that money doesn\u2019t exist\u2014meaning prospects are reliant on sponsors, academies, or national federations, often with strings attached to repay those investments later. Thiem&#8217;s own father <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennisworldusa.org\/tennis\/news\/Tennis_Interviews\/62115\/-you-have-no-idea-how-much-tennis-costs-thiem-s-father-warns-parents\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">spoke on this in 2018<\/a>, specifically that Dominic and his brother Moritz had to drop out of school to compete. &#8221; &#8216;A tennis career and school are incompatible. The school system does not allow a tennis career. The people in charge have no idea how time-consuming it is&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>The Gatekeeping of Tennis<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s a paradox: while tennis is delivering <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/tennis\/carlos-alcaraz-jannik-sinner-huge-us-open-audience.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">record-breaking TV ratings<\/a>, ticket sales, and sponsorship revenue at the top level, access at the grassroots remains heavily gatekept.<\/p>\n<p>Contrast this with global sports like football, basketball, or baseball, which aggressively scout and support talent from every corner of the world. Rising travel, training, and equipment costs only reinforce the barriers in tennis. Access to world-class coaching is generally restricted to expensive academies or to players from wealthy federations like the USTA, LTA, or Tennis Australia.<\/p>\n<p>That raises the uncomfortable question: how many potential Alcarazes, Serenas, or Nadals are being lost to other sports\u2014or lost altogether\u2014because the pathway in tennis is prohibitively expensive?<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mTM0ISn5OfY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Tennis Governing Bodies Must Do More<\/h3>\n<p>Thiem noted that he leaned on sponsorships to supplement his income, and now his own academy tries to provide opportunities for players from less privileged backgrounds. He\u2019s not alone. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/12\/10\/judy-murray-scottish-tennis-andy-murray\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Judy Murray<\/a>\u2014Andy and Jamie\u2019s mother\u2014has long spoken about the financial hurdles families face. In her recent book <em>Game, Set &amp; Murder<\/em>, she <a href=\"https:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/sport\/other-sport\/tennis\/andy-murray-judy-money-wimbledon-31992977\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recalled<\/a> the financial strain of sending Andy to Barcelona at age 15: \u201cWe were going to need \u00a330,000-35,000 a year. That was more than my entire salary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Andy Murray went on to become a multiple <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2024\/07\/05\/tennis-stars-show-appreciation-for-murray-as-career-nears-end\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Grand Slam and Olympic champion<\/a>\u2014but many equally talented players never make it because the economics don\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n<p>The takeaway is clear: it\u2019s not enough for tennis to showcase the sons of former champions like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kpS7rl0afGk\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bj\u00f6rn Borg\u2019s son Leo<\/a> while shutting out talent from less wealthy countries or communities. If the sport is serious about its future, governing bodies need to dedicate real money to broad-based development\u2014not just a select few already on the inside.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, tennis risks shrinking further behind financial barriers and losing the next generation of great shotmakers before they even get their chance. Thiem, Murray, and others have sounded the alarm. It\u2019s a call to action that the sport\u2019s leaders cannot afford to ignore.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Grand Slam champion Dominic Thiem, who retired in 2024 with 17 career titles, gave an extensive interview to the Business of Sport podcast this month. In the podcast, Thiem reflected on his career, the injuries that forced his retirement at age 31, and the future of tennis\u2014a sport currently defined on the men\u2019s side [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":58512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[166,3,8552,2,9,15913,4],"tags":[16,18,259,208,308,4750,817,13338,25,1733,15,364],"class_list":["post-90510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-itfjuniors","category-atp","category-atp-challenger-tour","category-featured","category-news","category-opinion","category-wta","tag-andy-murray","tag-atp","tag-atp-tour","tag-dominic-thiem","tag-itf-juniors","tag-itf-tennis","tag-judy-murray","tag-junior-tennis","tag-serena-williams","tag-usta","tag-wta","tag-wta-tour"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90511,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90510\/revisions\/90511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}