Schuettler Is In Wimbledon Semi, But Could Have Been Playing in Cordoba

Im currently sitting here watching Rainer Schuettler play Raphael Nadal in the semi final of Wimbledon and it really made me think about the tennis tours and levels of tours within the game. At the start of Wimbledon Rainer the 32 year old thought he was going to get through a round or two, and he was so confident that this was going to happen that he booked himself in for a challenger event in Cordoba. As it turns out he is now on center court in the Wimbledon semi final with a packed house watching him play, but if he did end up going to Cordoba he would have had 200 people watching him play, but only if he made the semis there. That also being said Rainer is going to receive a minimum of £187,500, but the Cordoba challenger has prize money in total of $100,000 but for all players.

So there is a huge difference between the level of tournaments, but the players arent really that different in level. Should there be a much smaller gap between prize money between tournament levels? Additionally, the ITF really need to think of ways to promote the sport, not just at the Grand Slam level, but more importantly at a basic tour level and also onto the Challenger and Future tournaments

Cordoba Challenger Results

Tags: cordoba nadal prizemoney rainer schuettler tennis