Tennis At the end of the day, we are lucky and privileged to have the chance to play this wonderful sport. Losing a tennis match is not even close to the worst thing in life, but it can feel like it. People can tell you, “It’s okay, it’s just a match” and well, they’re right. But what many people don’t understand because they haven’t been through it, is just how much a tennis player sacrifices for the sport. They give their body and mind to this sport, as well as the most precious thing of all, time. Years of countless hours of training, of pushing your body, and striving to be the best you can. Giving up a social life, going through financial struggles and debt, wavering mental sanity, and traveling often far from your family, all to be alone on a court to hit a ball over the net one more time than your opponent. The competition is high, and rewards little. Considering the amount of years it takes to build a great player, there aren’t many rewards. I’ve seen hundreds of players with a high level that don’t have a professional ranking. They are good enough to compete, and to even win matches, but they simply haven’t reached their goal yet. France, Germany, Italy, and Spain are some of the only countries that have good national prize money tournaments in place, and even club matches that pay players! I personally competed in French national tournaments for a year against girls with 0 professional points that had a very good level. So moving up from that, we have the very beginning of the professional tennis tour, $15,000’s ($15ks). This is total prize money, the winner doesn’t get $15,000! The accommodation, and all other costs, are covered by the player or their sponsor (if they have one). If you qualify and lose 1st round, you get $147. Minus tax of course, and the $40 entry fee. If you win a $15k, you get around $2000 after tax. And if you don’t qualify, well, you get $0. A sad reality that no one told tennis players is that many of them won’t make much money, and will instead go in debt and suffer emotionally. And for those who can afford it but don’t earn it back, they still suffer inside themselves. Because all these players didn’t work all these years for nothing. It was recorded in a study a couple years ago that there are more than 14,000 players competing on the professional tour. It was also recorded that the number of professional tournaments hasn’t increased significantly in more than 10 years. Instead of rejoicing in this evolution of tennis and how many are devoting their life to the sport, the International Tennis Federation sees it as a time to stop it. Similar to cutting down half a forest because there’s too many trees, or the expense is too high to take care of them. They will cut down the amount of players with a professional ranking in half (even more than half for men). They will cut $15,000 tournaments down from the pro tour (they will award 0 points). They will cut down the size of the qualifying draw and therefore the number of players who will be able to enter (from 32/48/64 draws to 24). They have even said they will reduce “officiating needs”. Just guessing here but that might mean since $15k’s won’t be on the pro tour they might not be deemed worthy to have referees at all. Instead, $15ks will be on the ITF’s newly made Transition Tour, which will award their own unique Transition Points, that you’ll be able to use to get a chance to play $25k’s. $25k’s which, unlike a lot of $15k’s, take place in a different city almost EVERY WEEK. $25k’s which, you see many top 200 players competing in! $25k’s which, will force a player’s budget to double due to increased traveling costs. And it’s the same story for all tournaments with higher prize money. Will the International Tennis Federation create more $25k’s? Since the amount of tournaments haven’t increased in over 10 years, my guess is no. And instead of finding more sponsors and creating more $15k’s, they will just take them out altogether from the pro tour! And while they’re at it, take the professional status and YEARS of hard work and sacrifice away from professional ranked players by cutting them down to 750 men and 750 women. I love tennis, but this is the cruelest possible thing to do to it. Instead of encouraging the evolution, they are destroying it. In an already tough and unforgiving sport, it will be harder than ever to break through to the top level. Please keep sharing the petition to help us stand against these new rules. Thank you! Hi *And a big thank you to all those who I’ve signed so far*