How to Become a Professional Tennis Player (Step-by-Step)
Step 1: Start young and have more talent than 99% of the field.
You begin tennis between the age of 5 and 9 and immediately realize you can do things that much older kids find difficult. Your coordination and kinesthetic intelligence is remarkable, and you have a knack for hustling down balls that most kids can’t even react to. You are more mature and coachable than anyone else your age.
Step 2: Be obsessed and uncompromising
Around age 10, you stop thinking about other sports seriously — it’s tennis only from now on. You want to play at least 10 hours per week, and when you’re not playing, you’re watching pros and obsessing over the smallest technical details. When you win a match, you want to pursue the next challenge. When you lose a match, you immediately want to practice more.
Step 3: Hit the genetic jackpot
You hit puberty at the right time and grow to at least the 90th percentile in height with low body fat and the right combination of fast-twitch muscle fibers. Your body is not only the right specs but is also highly resilient against common overuse injuries, including elbow, shoulder, back, and knee pain.
Step 4: Accept that you have no life anymore
At a certain point, you’ll need to train like a professional. That means around 5 hours per day at least 6 days per week. This kind of work is time-consuming and physically taxing, leaving little energy or room in the schedule for friends, hobbies, or schoolwork.
Step 5: Have perfect or near-perfect circumstances
You have to have access to high-level coaching and physical training, and you have to have mentors that understand the challenges you face. You also have to have access to the highest level of competition in your local area. It helps to live near a community with an active network of former pros or college players. You may need to receive homeschooling to have enough time to train or attend a tennis academy if local competition is too weak. And this can be costly, which brings us to…
Step 6: Spend a lot of money
You need a lot means to make it. Between coaching, tournaments, travel, and equipment, expect to pay upwards of $50,000 per year once you reach an elite level. $100,000 per year is not unheard of if you want attend a tennis-focused boarding school. The only way out of this is to be so undeniably good that sponsors and academies provide equipment and scholarships for you to train at low cost.
Step 7: Get a little bit lucky
Throughout everything, don’t get injured for more than a few weeks per year. Best case scenario: don’t get injured badly. Also, keep in mind that the margins of victory at the highest level are extremely close, so your career is more than likely going to rest on the results of a few close matches. You must go on a streak of winning matches where the margin of victory may be less than 1 or 2%.
Step 8: Don’t burn out or run out of money
The grind is unreal and every match takes a physical and mental toll, especially when you haven’t yet “made it.” Hopefully, you can deal with the trauma without burning out… or running out of money. Getting to the top is both hard and expensive. Pros outside of the world’s top 200 lose money in a winning season. Sponsors may foot some of the bill for the first year or two, but if you’re not in the black by then, see ya.
Step 9: Stay at the top long enough to make it count
Congrats if you made the top 150, but grand slam entries are not guaranteed at this level. At least you’re making a modest living while experiencing some of the glamorous perks of a pro athlete. If you’re a little better, say top 100, things are looking good. But you gotta stay at this level for at least 5 years if you want a career that is successful enough to provide name recognition for your retirement plans.
