The prize-money disparity between the
different tiers in professional tennis is
increasingly stark, to the point where it is
estimated that a player has to reach the
world’s top 200 to have a chance of
breaking even...
Evan Hoyt was once one of this
country’s most promising tennis
talents. In 2011, the Llanelli youngster
played alongside Kyle Edmund to help
win Great Britain the junior Davis Cup
for the first time, and received a blaze of
publicity at Wimbledon that year by
becoming a regular and trusted
practice partner of Rafael Nadal.
Nine years later, Hoyt’s career earn-
ings in the sport total only £73,000, and
that is before taking into account
taxes and expenses. The 25-year-
old is still a fine player, ranked
No 12 in Britain and No 445 in
the world — imagine the pay
packet of the equivalent in
football — but he has barely
managed to scrimp his way
round the third-tier ITF
World Tour, where the
cheques do not come close to
covering flights, accommoda-
tion and meals.
“In terms of prize money, there
is very little income compared to
other sports,” Hoyt says. “Where you
can make your money in tennis is
through endorsements. But you have to
be at the top of the game playing ATP
tour tennis week in, week out. For a few
years I had to rely heavily on support
from my family. My aunties and uncles
all chipped in a little bit to help me out.”
Hoyt cannot afford a permanent
address. He pays a nightly fee when
training at the Soto Tennis Academy in
Sotogrande, Spain, and will often stay
with his girlfriend, Ema, at her apart-
ment in Vilamoura, Portugal.
“Ideally I look to stay in a place that is
35 quid or less for the night,” Hoyt says.
“You can budget and do things very
cheaply if you need to, which is what I
did for years, staying in hostels and only
travelling to places where you can
afford to go.”
Hoyt experienced a rare lucrative
payday last year by becoming the first
Welsh player to reach the quarter-finals
of a Wimbledon senior event since
Gerald Battrick in 1975. His run in the
mixed doubles, along with wild-card
appearances in the men’s doubles and
singles qualifying, earned prize money
of £20,250, boosting his total for the
year to about £40,000. His outgoings
over the same period came to £34,528.
“It was the first year in which I didn’t
lose money,” Hoyt says. There is no
sense, though, of any regrets at the
precarious financial situation that he is
in. “Tennis gives
you an unbelievable life-
style whether you are earning 10 or 60
grand a year,” Hoyt says. “It’s not some-
thing you can do for your whole life, so
I think it is worth setting aside the
financial burdens and just really focus
on what tennis gives you.”Emily Webley-Smith could not help
but chuckle when she read of com-
plaints from the top players about a
US Open proposal that would mean
they could each bring only one team
member to Flushing Meadows.
“What a disaster that would be,”
Webley-Smith jokes. For most of her
career, the 36-year-old from Bristol has
travelled on the tour by herself, unable
to afford the expense of an accompany-
ing coach, which makes a career-high
world ranking of No 240 in singles and
No 113 in doubles very creditable.
If there are young players wary and
uncertain of how to afford life as a
professional tennis player, then they
could do far worse than take a closer
look at how Webley-Smith has man-
aged to navigate the world on about
£280,000 of prize money over 21 years.
“If there’s a will, there’s a way, but just
by the skin of my teeth,” she says. “In
January I coached in London for three
weeks to make enough money for my
first two trips of the year. Ultimately it
compromised my preparation but itSport
the times | Saturday August 15 2020 2GS 17
Sport
Explained
SNOOKER
Player and analyst
Dominic Dale tells
Willis Bennett what it
takes to dazzle on
the baizeStance
Side
Swerve
Top spin and back spin are exactly
the same shot, technically. For a top
spin shot, you want to strike the ball
about 1cm below the top of the ball,
that way all of your tip is hitting the
ball and you avoid a miss-cue. The
motion should be a long sweeping
stroke, until your cue arm hits your
chest. Your cue tip should go
through the cue ball by four to six
inches. The back spin shot is the
same but about 1cm from the
bottom of the ball. The lower you
hit below the central axis of the ball
the more back spin you create. A
stun shot is the same as a back spin,
but you don’t go through the ball,
you jab a little bit moreA side spin shot should also hit the
cue ball about 1cm from its
periphery. So, say you strike the ball
at 3 o’clock, known as right hand
side, the spin will grip on the cloth
and move to the right. There is such
little friction on the championship
tables, though, so side is tricky to
produceA swerve shot is
the same as
playing a shot with
left or right
handside, except
you elevate the cue so that the cue is striking through the cue ball pointing
into the bed of the table. By doing that you’re creating a great deal more
friction, up to ten times more, so that the spin will grip immediately. The ball
is being hit into the cloth, rather than gliding across the surface. If you are
swerving the ball to the right you must hit the ball at 3 o’clockStrike target Top spinBack spinSide spinTop and
side spinTop and
side spinBack and
side spinBack and
side spinSide spinStop/Draw
shotAimDeflectionSwerveEyes are an important aspect of the stance; some people are centrally
sighted, some are left, some right. It’s what comes naturally. The key thing
with the stance is to make sure your back leg is straight, the model
technicians for stance are Ding Junhui, Neil Robertson and Mark SelbyAccording to the textbook you
should have your back leg
straight and your front leg
slightly bent, which enables
you to get down to the shot.
Your back hand, where you hold the cue, should be quite close to your hip,
so that you’re compact, which reduces lateral movement. It’s all about being
comfortable. As a rule, the toes of your back foot should be level with the
heel of your front foot. Your feet should be about 15 inches apartSpin
Webley-Smith and Hoyt, inset, are reminders of the
struggles faced by tennis players below the world elite‘My auntie had to chip in’
- how to survive on tour
allowed me to travel. It’s all very well
being super professional and being in
good shape, but it’s very difficult if you
haven’t got the money for the flight.”
She has undergone seven surgeries
during her career. “I’ve been a nanny,
I’ve coached, I’ve worked in a bar, I’ve
worked as a waitress and just tried to do
everything possible I could around my
rehab,” she says.
Webley-Smith has many examples of
ingenuity from her travels to far-flung
places. One stand-out memory is of a
trip to Lagos, Nigeria, alongside her
fellow British player Naomi Broady.
The pair discovered that the tourna-
ment director had falsely advertised a
rate of £50 per room when it was in fact
per person. Some clever cost-cutting
was required to last the fortnight.
“We decided that we would eat in
restaurants only before singles match-
es,” Webley-Smith says. “Otherwise we
would have Pot Noodles in the room.
We also decided to hide Naomi in the
room and say we weren’t both staying in
the hotel. We managed to survive and
come home safely. Half of it was funny
but half of it was scary.”
6 Serena Williams suffered a surpris-
ing defeat in the quarter-finals of the
Lexington Open last night, losing 1-6,
6-4, 7-6 (7-5) to Shelby Rogers, the
world No 116 from the United States.
She will now go to New York to ramp up
her preparations for the US Open.Tennis
Stuart Fraser
Tennis Correspondent
1 Cristiano Ronaldo arrived at
Manchester United aged 18 and was
given the No 7 jersey, but which
number had he requested?
2 Who is the only 18-year-old to have
played Test cricket for England?
3 Pelé was 17 when he scored sixgoals in Brazil’s 1958 World Cup
campaign. Who was the only man to
score more at that tournament?
4 Which American tennis player
cracked the top ten of the women’s
world rankings when she was only 14?
5 Who is the youngest player to have
played in a rugby union Test for the
British & Irish Lions?
6 Who is the youngest men’s
footballer to have played for Wales?
7 How old was Michael Phelps when
he competed at the 2000 Olympics?8 Shafali Verma represented India at
16 in the World Cup of which sport?
9 Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick on
his Manchester United debut aged 18.
Who were the opponents?
10 Boris Becker was 17 when he won
Wimbledon in 1985. Who was his
opponent in the final?
11 Lydia Ko, aged 19, won a silver
medal in the women’s golf at the 2016
Olympics. For which country?
12 Who is the youngest Tour de
France champion?Answers 1. 28; 2. Brian Close; 3. Just Fontaine; 4. Jennifer Capriati; 5. Tony O’Reilly; 6. Harry Wilson; 7. 15; 8. Cricket
(T20); 9. Fenerbahce; 10. Kevin Curren; 11. New Zealand; 12. Henri CornetWEEKEND
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