At what point does a tennis player move up to the higher rank and starts to choose, which Grand Slam tournament to go to?
In tennis, only the first dozen at the top are able to make money. (Editor note – Currently Gulbis is 29th in the world rank) The rest are not able to bring their coaches along to the tournaments. At first I thought that the coach is not needed at tournaments and brought a helping friend instead, but then I realized that to be able to compete with the top ranked players I need a coach with me. At the moment, I have 2 coaches and a physio. It looks like I earn a lot, because nobody counts how much I spend – I need to pay for the hotel, the plane tickets, and food for the whole team. If there wasn’t the help of my father, I wouldn’t be able to survive with the money I make. Tennis cannot be compared to hockey, where a federation pays for the hotels and training spaces. To be able to practice, we pay for the courts ourselves, we pay for the hotels with our own money. In hockey the money is not divided by so many people as it is in ATP, which hardly supports the players. The biggest Grand
