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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | SEPTEMBER 2023 61 If you are like me, you probably enjoy watching professional tennis matches on your big screen TV. Those top pros make it look so easy and glamorous, especially after winning a major event, holding the beautiful trophy with an enormous check in their hand and a big smile from ear to ear. However, have you ever wondered about the thousands and thousands of players who never made it to that level? For players outside the top 100, life in general on the pro tours can be a constant balancing act between staying in the profession and avoiding bankruptcy. For the lower-ranked pros, they have to pay for all necessary expenses themselves, including flights, hotels, food, physiotherapists, equipment costs, fitness trainers, and coaches (if they can even afford one), etc. It is not uncommon for those players to spend more than they earn in order to compete on the tours. The physical, financial, and emotional stresses are staggeringly high. As tennis is a result-driven sport and is rewarded monetarily by winning matches, every unforced error, every lost point, every blown chance to win a match could mean less money to cover their next tournament. The NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL all divide their pooled revenues between the players and the owners at about a 50/50 split. The teams would cover coaching, fitness training, healthcare expenses, travel, and accommodations, etc. Players' salaries are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. On the other hand, tennis pros are independent contractors. They earn their income by winning matches. Their annual expenses can cost between $150K to $200K to play professionally if they field a full support team. Even if they go it alone, expenses typically can run between $40K to $100K a year. As tennis is an individual sport, all expenses fall on each pro's shoulders. As such, for the average players without lucrative endorsement deals like the top ones have, just trying to break even with only prize money is a feat in and of itself. So, if you have been thinking seriously about turning pro, and unless you are confident you can fight your way into the top 100, I guarantee it will be a lot less stressful to just remain a weekend warrior. Haha! Beat you all to The Courts! Website: https://sites.google.com/ view/tennis-fourseasons/home. ~ Stan Lam, (714) 757-2141, slamcpa@gmail.com Tennis Club There are a lot of advantages to playing in our Four Seasons ping pong club. Sometimes surprising things happen that makes ping pong go beyond ping pong. That happened on June 30 when we were told that an anonymous person had given our ping pong club 10 tickets to the premiere showing of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. We handed out the tickets on a first-come, first- serve basis and they went fast. Who doesn't want a free night at the movies? So 10 lucky ping pong players met at the 2nd Street Cinemas and enjoyed a great action movie where we watched archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) as he raced against time to retrieve a legendary dial that could change the course of history. Join us at The Courts for ping pong. We play Mondays through Saturdays from 2 to 4 pm. You never know when we might end up at the movies again and you could join us. For more information, email Niles at nilstrom@gmail.com. ~ Niles Sundstrom Table Tennis In our dreams… L-R: Ping pong players Hailu, Niles, Bill, Jeannine, Mitch, Pat, Harvey, Soo, Lisa, and Brent displaying their ping pong paddles before going in to watch the fih and final Indiana Jones thriller

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