Karim MaamounSTAY FIT – STAY HEALTHY!

Money TournamentsFiled Under: Quick Facts, Tennis

I just came back from Romania; I played the challenger in Brasov and the ATP Bucharest Open. I really played well but I won’t blame it on the mental again. In Brasov, I passed the qualifying rounds then lost first round main draw final set again.. then I lost in the second round of the ATP after winning a first good match against an ex top 150 player which gave me a boost that faded away after a 4-1 lead in the second match. It was really nice to play there, another atmosphere, great courts, nice hotel and everything easy to reach. I am preparing now for the last tournaments of the year including club matches and 2 futures plus some local tournaments. As for the club matches I really want to know when they are going to separate men’s club matches from the juniors. I really think that it would be much better for the Egyptian tennis. Firstly, because there will be more competition and all the good juniors could participate in it to strengthen the men’s team.. well as I said before there are no men playing now so they are all juniors. Secondly there are some clubs that have good men’s team but don’t have a junior team so like that they aren’t able to participate in the league which is really a waste. Thirdly, people are interested to watch high level or men’s tennis more than watching juniors so these matches could be broadcasted on TV with big prize money for the winning team. This leads me to the other point which is the prize money, the biggest incentive for any sportsman is to earn money and since we are wondering why all our players quit at the age of 22, well it’s simple they don’t see how they can earn money from playing in Egypt without traveling and blah blah blah. You can earn money in men’s tennis by separating it from the juniors. There should definitely be more men’s tournaments than juniors, not the opposite, and with money included, which will raise the level of competition and players will play for longer like in France and Italy and Germany. It’s like a job, maybe better than a regular one because u will do what u like and earn good money for it. The prize money in tournaments has been the same since 10 years can u believe that? 3500 Egyptian pounds which is 600$ for the winner for the last ten years if the tournament is full, it’s a joke. Well if u play 3 tournaments a month or more and win 600$ each week then it’s ok and for one year then it’s worth it, but there are like 4 or 5 tournaments a year for that, it takes 2 to 3 weeks to finish a tournament consisting of juniors starting from under 10( I don’t know even why do they make tournaments for this age) until men’s. So as I said club matches should be a tournament on its own with its own prize money for men weather it’s for one week or 5 consecutive weeks. There should be more prize money tournaments, trust me, the players when they find that they earn money from competing they will continue and always try to improve. In France there are so many good players who play money tournaments and their level is even better than a top 400 guy, most of them don’t have even an ATP point but it’s a worthy job. If we take a step towards this Idea, I think that there will be more players continuing to play for a longer period of time not just finish college then quit, and even better coaches in the future because they have played the game.