A practice court made in … Tunisia

As the professional tennis tour prepares to descend upon the most perfectly manicured grass courts on the planet, it’s worth remembering that levels below Wimbledon, conditions are significantly more challenging.

The photo above is of a tennis court at a hotel in Hammamet, Tunisia. Professional players practice on this court ahead of their matches at the series of $15,000 ITF Pro Circuit events in the area.

It’s not a pretty sight.

Not only does it look a little hazardous and not exactly conducive to good tennis, it’s also not even a clay court. And the Hammamet tournaments are played on the red clay.

Why practice on it? Well, as Canadian player Petra Januskova tells tennis.life, it’s not really an option.

Money-making operations

There isn’t much profit to be made at the Futures level – certainly not for the tournament organizers, given the lack of paying fans and sponsorship revenue.

And certainly not for the players. The prize money isn’t close to enough to cover expenses.

And yet, there are several areas in the world that hold these tournaments virtually every week. Hammamet is one. Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Antalya, Turkey. Heraklion, Greece. Santa Margarita di Pula, Italy. The list goes on.

Why do they do it? It’s a pretty simple financial calculation.

The events are held at resorts, which fill their rooms with the tournament players and coaches from various-sized qualifying draws (some up to 64) and main draw, and earn their revenue that way.

To that end, when the former $10,000 events were mandated to increase their prize money to $15,000, the Tunisian resorts jacked up their room rates.

And to “encourage” the players to stay there, they charge them to use the practice courts on site if they choose alternate accommodation to save money.

Until the Monday of each event, Januskova said that charge is 15-20 Euros per hour.

Once the tournament begins, there is no charge. But for players who travel there to play three or four weeks in a row, and are eliminated during the week, there’s an obvious need for practice courts every day until the next event begins.

Triple room rates

So, why not just stay at the official hotel?

Well, Januskova said the rate is more than three times what it costs to stay at another hotel, located just a little over a mile away.

Even if both are affordable by normal standards, the cost still doubles for players who travel with a coach.

The practice court above, at one of those nearby hotels, is free.

But it goes beyond that.

At some of these Futures factories, some of the closest hotels get designated as “official tournament hotels”, where the same restrictions apply. As well, some tournaments have an informal agreement with those hotels and nearby tennis clubs to abide by the same restrictions, or not allow the players access at all.

That leaves many players no choice but to prop up the net on a dilapidated practice court with a chair.

The new Transition Tour

The next interesting development will come when the ITF’s new “Transition Tour” structure kicks in in 2019.

There will soon be no opportunity at all to earn precious ATP and WTA points by playing the those $15,000 events.

So that will surely discourage many players to enter.

“We have already spoken to tournament directors … and they say they will not be able to fund $15,000 tournaments any more, because the qualifying draws will be smaller, and less players will be expected to play,” said Canadian Maria Patrascu, who started a petition to raise awareness about the effect the new structure will have on pro tennis.

Already – perhaps unrelatedly, perhaps not – all the tournaments scheduled for August in Hammamet, Tunisia have been cancelled.

In the meantime, the players at this level will soldier on, regardless of the challenges posed by the impossible conditions.

They say much of the satisfaction of the accomplishment is in the journey. But in this case, the journey needs a plastic lawn chair to hold it up.