Tursunov Spends $200,000 A Year On Tour Expenses

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 24th October 2013

ATP Tennis Tournament in Washington, DC.

Tursunov Spends $200,000 A Year On Tour Expenses

epa03812504 Russia's Dmitry Tursunov hits a return to USA's John Isner during their men's semifinals singles match at the Citi Open ATP tennis tournament in Washington, DC, USA, 03 August 2013. Isner won the match 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the final on Sunday. EPA/PETE MAROVICH |

Dmitry Tursunov is one of the most outspoken players in the game and has been in the forefront of discussing how much player’s expenses have increased over the years.

The Russian says that tennis players’ expenses are a lot higher than other sports, because teams don’t pay for them to travel. Tennis players usually have to pay for their own flights, but hotel costs are taken care of by tournaments as long as the players are still in the event.

“There are certain expenses you can’t escape such as airline tickets and so forth but then you have coaches, if you want to compete well, if you want to make it in to the top 50 there’s no way you can do that without a coach,” he told CNN. “I’ve tried. Roger [Federer] has done it for some time but he’s still traveling with a physio, the guy who strings his racquets and those are all expenses you pay yourself “You pay a salary to your coach, then you pay his and your travel expenses as well as food. So it adds up. I think to travel with a coach you are probably going to hit $200,000 a year in expenses.”

The 30-year-old Tursunov has earned a little over $600,000 this year and almost $5 million in his career. He does not travel with a hitting partner.

Tursunov, who is back on Russia’s Davis Cup team as he’s the nation’s second ranked player, was trained as a young player in the Sacramento, California area, where he still spends some time. One of his fondest memories of playing the competition was in 2006 when he outlasted American Andy Roddick 17-15 in the fifth set at home on clay.

“After that long fifth set, my dad said ‘I’m really sorry I put you in to tennis’ I felt he actually meant it — the match lasted nearly five hours. I think he was pretty exhausted,” he said.

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