Just found this thread - sorry, The O - hadn't seen it - so I've copied over the post I put on this week's entries:
It looks like Naomi Broady is playing World Team Tennis this week, for the Philadelphia Freedoms.
Which should be a LOT of fun. And financially a VERY good idea !
I've always thought it sounded a great format (team tennis in 5 sets (to 5, I think) with one pairing of each sort of tennis playing each set i.e. Men's singles, women's singles, each doubles and mixed) and then add up the games.
Looks to me that Naomi lost her singles 4-5 against Pauline Parmentier
But aced the womens doubles 5-1 (playing with Sam Crawford)
And the Mixed doubles (with Fabrice Martin) 5-3
It goes on two weeks. Bravo, Naomi, for getting a spot. Brilliant initiative.
(NB John Lloyd is the coach for the San Diego Aviators, no sign of Dan Evans)
PS Does anybody have any idea how much they get paid? A lot of the numbers I've seen are absolute telephone numbers, but more for 'star' players.
However, even the 'ordinary' players will get enough to swamp their normal earnings, I believe. If so, even MORE congrats to Naomi
I certainly hope Naomi is going to come out of this with a heap of cash as otherwise I do find the whole thing to be a bit of a head scratcher. I noticed looking at the draw for the WTA international event in Nanchang that had Naomi entered she would have been the top seed! The decision to play WTT does however make sense if a big payday is offered and I guess it has the added attraction that unlike a tournament it's guaranteed earnings and so you don't have to worry about losing in the first round and barely covering your costs.
Plus when Naomi signed up for this, she would have had no idea that this week's WTA events would be so weak, so made the right call at the time.
Not saying that Naomi made the wrong choice, and I particularly have no idea re the finances, maybe makes quite a lot of sense. But I doubt a WTA International in China in pre Olympic week, indeed overlapping the start of the Olympic tennis ( so distance and timing making it a no no for Olympians ) was ever likely to be that strong, but more as it has turned out, taking account also that I assume quite a number of remaining reasonably top players were always going to be playing World Team Tennis.
-- Edited by indiana on Monday 1st of August 2016 11:03:02 PM
Firstly, I think World Team tennis is great fun and a blessed change.
The tennis life of a pro is extremely repetitive, and single. One competition after another. All pretty much identical. Just a whirlwind of travel, and admin, and stress re finances, and then having to hit some balls with no one to blame but yourself if you lose and play like a muppet.
This will be a complete breath of fresh air, a real laugh and spectacle: much needed.
And although the numbers are secret (as far as I know), it's said that the less known players get 20-30 k per match. Some say way more (or way, way more per win). One of the top players supposedly got 400k for a few matches. Any which way, 20k per match is huge (even if toned down for exaggeration). And 'way more' is huger !
All round, a slamdunk, in my view.
-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 2nd of August 2016 07:15:57 AM
Firstly, I think World Team tennis is great fun and a blessed change.
The tennis life of a pro is extremely repetitive, and single. One competition after another. All pretty much identical. Just a whirlwind of travel, and admin, and stress re finances, and then having to hit some balls with no one to blame but yourself if you lose and play like a muppet.
This will be a complete breath of fresh air, a real laugh and spectacle: much needed.
And although the numbers are secret (as far as I know), it's said that the less known players get 20-30 k per match. Some say way more (or way, way more per win). One of the top players supposedly got 400k for a few matches. Any which way, 20k per match is huge (even if toned down for exaggeration). And 'way more' is huger !
All round, a slamdunk, in my view.
-- Edited by Coup Droit on Tuesday 2nd of August 2016 07:15:57 AM
Thanks CD, sounds good to me. I can kind of see a case over a potentially weak WTA International
Out of interest where does all the money come from and what's the payback they're expecting ? - ie does it really generate huge TV revenue, bums on seat revenue, anticipated sponsorship benefit ? I guess there's method over madness in splahing such cash
I am assuming there must be very much more interest stateside than ever gets transmitted over here. Unless we have some very big tennis philanthropists ...
-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 2nd of August 2016 01:42:46 PM
And although the numbers are secret (as far as I know), it's said that the less known players get 20-30 k per match. Some say way more (or way, way more per win). One of the top players supposedly got 400k for a few matches. Any which way, 20k per match is huge (even if toned down for exaggeration). And 'way more' is huger !
All round, a slamdunk, in my view.
There is an article online that states that the salary cap for 2014 was about $400K per team. http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/world-team-tennis-eager-play-las-vegas-heat (towards the bottom of the article). The unknowns are whether all the teams pay the full amount, whether that figure has risen since 2014, and finally, whether the fees for the stars comes out of the team salary budget or a central WTT budget.
If Caroline Wozniacki's fee comes out of the $400K (let's assume unchanged since 2014), then you might reasonably assume Woz gets $200K (otherwise why bother ?) Donald Young might get $50K ish for being slightly more well known than the rest of the team, then the coach, Naomi, Luckas Lacko, Martin and Sam Crawford share the rest. That would make Naomi's salary $30K for the whole event before bonuses, should she or the team feature at the top of the various rankings.
Personally I was a bit shocked when I noticed Naomi's name missing from the list for Cincinnati qualifying, as that was one of the few events played in typically fast conditions, which would seem to suit Naomi's game. However, the WTT hasn't quite finished by the time that qualifying takes place.
-- Edited by kundalini on Tuesday 2nd of August 2016 04:43:09 PM
Never mind the money. Who wouldn't relish the opportunity to play (mixed) doubles with Fabrice Santoro! (All right, yes, the money is important. But it does sound like a great deal of fun, too)
Not at all your fault, CD - though characteristically gracious of you to say so! Just me leaping to conclusions. And betraying the fact, probably, that Fabrice Santoro was one of my favourite players ever to watch, so I just 'retired' the name mentally.