After the season ended with Grigor Dimitrov’s victory at the World Tour Finals, a challenge of a different kind began for some players. 25 aspiring pros visited ATP University, where the World Association explains how the Tour is organized and helps players with bureaucratic tasks.
The life of a tennis pro is not just about one tournament after another. Outside of the course there are also many tasks to be performed, such as tournament and travel planning, financing of the daily tour activities, but also registration formalities and licences for the game operation, which can cost the athletes a lot of energy and nerves.
Since 1990, ATP has been striving to create the basis for a successful career on and off the tennis courts with an advanced training program for future stars. Twice a year, ATP University offers “lectures” on topics such as media, marketing, finance and the ATP pension system, regular training courses, as well as anti-doping and anti-corruption.
“It’s important to know what the tour is doing for us players,”says Lucas Pouille, who successfully completed the training in 2015.”We’ve learned about the tasks of the ATP.”
Every professional who is in his first year of Division 1 membership at ATP must attend ATP University. This group includes all players who are in the top 200 in the singles at the beginning of the year, or who are ranked among the top 100 in doubles. The structure of the training course is deliberately and strictly chosen.
“It started at 8:30 a. m. and lasted until 2:00 p. m.,”said Dominic Thiem, who graduated a year before Pouille.”It felt a bit like school, but with very nice colleagues and a little bit of other teachers, so I enjoyed it very much”.
Erika Kegler’s work is one of the reasons why the program has met with great interest among players. The American is in charge of the player development department at ATP and is responsible for the organization of ATP University,”Players need the right tools to be successful on the tour,”said Kegler,”I’ve heard from many players that they’re looking forward to the meeting ahead of time. This attitude alone makes them the stars of the future.”
The lecturers at ATP University are both ATP employees and external experts. Former professionals also come back to the courses and tell us about their experiences on the tour. This year, Alex Corretja gave the players support in his career as an active player.
In addition, the association employs a professional media trainer to train athletes in their communication and to conduct TV interviews. In addition to further information about the organisation of tournaments, players will also receive training in nutrition, medical care and a topic that is becoming increasingly important in today’s world: social media.
“They told us that you should only share the things your grandmother would tell you,”Thiem told us about the training two years ago with a wink,”You shouldn’t take photos of yourself at five o’ clock in the morning in a bar. They showed us some embarrassing pictures of stars, which was very helpful in avoiding such embarrassing moments.”
Outside of the university, ATP constantly tries to support its players in further education. A few years ago, for example, the German ex-professional Michael Berrer received a scholarship from the ATP to begin a bachelor’s degree in psychology in the USA.
“You’re a tennis pro only up to the age of 35,”Berrer explained,”and only if you’re really healthy. What comes after that are many, many more years, for which you should look for something that really interests you. It’s great that the ATP is helping us.”
Graduates of this year’s ATP University include Felix Auger-Aliassime, Yannick Hanfmann, Roman Jebavy, Maximilian Marterer, Nikola Mektic, Stefano Napolitano, Sebastian Ofner and Denis Shapovalov. A total of 25 players took part in the course, breaking the sound barrier of 1,000 graduates at ATP University.
There was also plenty of fun: In addition to dinner together, the players also visited the singles and doubles final of the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London, the last highlight of the crazy 2017 tennis season.