It is the big topic for budding professionals: the love of money. Tennis costs, and until you've made the big breakthrough, you spend almost all of your time on it. The result: many budding talents fall by the wayside.

Dominic Thiem knows that too. Of course, he made the big breakthrough, but in the meantime he also had his concerns. “You can be a professional quickly. But in order to be able to make a living from it, you have to go all the way up, ”he explained in the podcast Simply lop by Toni Kroos and his brother Felix .

When switching from juniors to professionals, he too “briefly doubted it”. The thing is: as a junior you have a nice life, you live in nice hotels, "it's like a small professional tour, you play the Grand Slams together with the professionals." But then it goes on the future tour. "And that are sometimes the worst tournaments, where you live really badly, where nothing fits, you have to pay for everything yourself. And you have a lot of pressure. You kind of have to get to the final or win the tournament in order to get out to zero. "

In addition, “seasoned men are there”, says Thiem, who are not interested in whether you want to advance as a junior. “They want to eat you up. And I had my problems with that at the beginning. "

Dominic Thiem: Grand Slams make so much money ...

Thiem has managed to earn more than 28 million US dollars in prize money so far and has probably earned a similarly substantial amount through advertising contracts. But how can you make the tennis tour attractive for more players? Thiem broached the problem: The Grand Slams and the other big tournaments are pouring out more and more money, and the Challenger tournaments have at least gotten a little better. But if you look at the future level: The prize money there is almost the same (low) as it was before he was born.

The great injustice: “The four Grand Slams make so much money, and they didn't do anything about being in exactly those four countries. Their four associations are by far the richest. ”Thiem's solution: You should give a small percentage to the futures. "This could at least enable the players to get out with zero or to earn a little something."

Thiem praises the Italian way

Another approach is the tournament landscape itself, and here Thiem looks to Italy. The Italians currently have eight players in the top 100. "The association puts a lot of money into the national tournaments, they have so many futures and challengers in Italy," says Thiem. The advantage here: “The good players can compete with the best international players within a radius of 100 or 200 kilometers or train with them, but they don't have to travel far. You can partly sleep at home. That is very reflected in the budget. "

The way works, says the Lichtenwörther. “It feels like Italy is bringing out one young top player after another. And that certainly has a lot to do with it. "

Read the entire conversation here