Austrian Dominic Thiem, the 2020 US Open champion, has admitted that tennis is a sport for the rich. He did so in an interview with ‘Jot Down Sport’, in which he said that “tennis is very expensive. From the age of 13 to 18 (…), you have to pay between 92,000 and 115,000 dollars a year. So we’re talking about almost a million in total, which is an incredible amount of money and practically nobody can afford it”.
After his retirement, the Austrian, a finalist at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, is focused on scouting and developing young talent and talks about some examples. “We have a 17-year-old player competing in the US Open juniors who is very good, but when you are 15 or 16 years old and you start playing junior Grand Slams, you travel almost like a professional: 30 or 35 weeks a year. And there is no prize money, so you only spend. You need support, yes or yes.”
“When I started to climb the rankings and earn money, I was not interested in how money worked or what to do with it. I just wanted to be financially secure at the end of my career,” he explained in the interview. “I was very lucky to have a great financial advisor from the age of 18 or 19, whom I trusted from day one. He took care of everything and explained it to me when I started to get more interested.”
If you’re Rafa’s rival in the final in Paris, they don’t make it easy for you. The presenter starts to present his titles: 2005, 2006, 2007… and the crowd goes wild. You’re there listening and you already feel like you’ve lost the match
He also spoke about some of his main rivals in his career, such as Rafa Nadal.“If you are Rafa’s rival in the final in Paris, they do not make it easy for you. The presenter starts to present his titles: 2005, 2006, 2007… and the crowd goes crazy. You are there listening and you already feel that you have lost the match. It’s one of the worst experiences I’ve had in my career.”
He also spoke about what the moment of retirement was like, which he tried to prepare for in advance. “The thing I was told the most was: keep busy. That was the number one piece of advice. And that’s exactly what I did. My last game was on a Tuesday, and on Wednesday I had my first appointment off the court. Keeping busy saved me.”
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