Wednesday, September 17, 2003

The fan-friendly side of professional sports

By MONROE ROARK
mroark@TheCitizenNews.com

Professional sports buzzed in and out of Fayette County last week, albeit under the radar.

For nearly a decade, the Peachtree City Tennis Center has hosted some of the best and brightest players on the women's scene. Granted, these are not the players at the very top of the pro tour, but when you consider how many tens of millions of people around the world play tennis regularly, and some of the top 200 in the world played in Peachtree City last week, that's an impressive event.

The appeal of a tournament like this, which is part of the USTA Professional Circuit, is similar to what I find enjoyable about minor league baseball. Indeed, there are many similarities; the most noticeable, perhaps, is the gap in money and glamour between the highest level of professional play in each sport and its respective farm system.

Like minor league baseball players, the young women in the Peachtree City tournament, known officially as the Goody Products USTA Pro Women's Championships, are not deterred by the bright lights and time constraints of television because there aren't any. There was little press coverage at all, aside from The Citizen. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution mentioned the tourney in advance the Sunday before it began and not again until two days ago, when the final results were reported.

The entire purse for the tournament was $25,000. That was shared among every 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams. To give you some perspective, another professional female tennis player, Justine Henin-Hardenne, collected $900,000 all by herself when she won the U.S. Open a couple of weeks ago.

Kristina Brandi, the winner here, got $3,000. Allison Bradshaw, the runner-up, received $1,700. The top doubles team split $1,200. It's not hard to see that only a handful of the players here last week broke even, considering travel expenses and the fact that many of them brought coaches along. But like minor league baseball, you don't play at this level for the money. You play here to move up, and if you don't move up in a matter of time, you move on to another line of work.

"They're playing for the points [that determine the rankings]," said Dessie Samuels, a USTA official who ran this tournament and travels the country throughout the year doing other tournament. "If they get enough points, they can move up to a WTA event [the big leagues for women] and make more money."

Like minor league baseball, many tennis players must contend with language and cultural differences while working their way through the system and trying to get better. It's one thing to live on the road; it's another to do it in a foreign country. More than a dozen nations were represented at the Tennis Center last week in the main draw.

All of these factors motivate the players in ways that guaranteed contracts and first-class accommodations do not. Simply put, minor league ballplayers, no matter what sport, are more likely to play their tails off. When that happens, whatever the outcome, the spectator is the winner.

But remember, everyone has to start somewhere. Regular fans of the Macon Braves, who moved to Rome this season, saw a steady stream during the 1990s of guys with names like Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones. There is a lot of talent at the minor league level, and it doesn't cost much to watch (admission to the Tennis Center last week was zero).

Sometimes, like major league baseball players who make brief returns to AA ball to help them play their way back from injuries, a top-tier tennis star will do the same thing on this circuit. Several years ago, when Andre Agassi fell to 150th or so, he used tournaments like this as part of his rehabilitation, earning points and playing time.

Just this year, right here in Georgia at Sea Island, a tournament the same size as Peachtree City's got a publicity boost when Anna Kournikova showed up. Alas, she didn't make the trip to Fayette County last week, which probably disappointed some people (but not my wife).

Last year's winner in Peachtree City, Maria Sharapova of Russia, has seen some good things happen lately. She reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon this year and won a match at the U.S. Open. If she keeps improving, some local tennis fans can say that they saw her "back when."

With a local tournament, Fayette is a winner as well. There is some prestige within the tennis community, and as with many big-time events throughout the year at the Tennis Center, it means a hundred or so hotel rooms and a few thousand meals bought and paid for inside the county and Peachtree City. Meanwhile, the Tennis Center keeps on racking up awards from state and national tennis officials.

As for Brandi, she entered this year's tournament ranked 112th in the world and will surely move up. Is the top 10 in her future? You never know. But I got my picture taken with her, just in case.