Coach, physio, manicure videographer? How elite tennis has become a traveling circus | Wimbledon2024

as she took her first tentative steps as a professional tennis player 21 years ago, one of the most important early decisions Victoria Azarenka made was to invest in her own fitness coach. After a stellar junior career, Azarenka knew she wanted to be a top tennis player for as long as possible and that building a formidable team around her was a priority to achieve that. Back then, not everyone did that.

I think when I started, when I was a young player, I was one of the few players who traveled with a fitness coach, Azarenka says, laughing. And now it's a fitness coach, a physiotherapist, a psychologist, a videographer, manicure and everything It is sometimes exaggerated, but tennis has become more professional.

Over the years, professional tennis has changed in many ways and one of the most notable transformations is the growth in the number of players. Where once top players would only travel with a coach, it is now standard for them to have personal fitness trainers and physios as they try to get the most out of their talent.

As with many trends in recent years, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams set the standard with their large entourages and their influence can be seen in players such as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. It's good to find the team that works for you, says Taylor Fritz. I invested in a full-time physio at a fairly early age. That's huge, because taking care of the body is the most important thing. Once you're in the top 100 and I feel like you have the money to afford it, it's definitely worth it. It pays for itself.

There is still a huge contrast between the wealthy frontrunners who can afford to travel with small armies of helpers and the rest of the tour, but the growing prize money pots at the biggest tournaments have made it possible for more players to join other team members to invest. Andy Murray said: I think it's really important to do that when you can. Clearly there is a lot more prize money on the tour now, and certainly more players can afford to have more than just a coach with them.

Madison Keys agrees. It's definitely changed a lot since I started, she says. I think of course more prize money helps, but I think it gets to a point where you need everyone on the road, but there are definitely more people, more kids. There are just a lot of people around you all the time. We really are a traveling circus.

These entourages are more than just performance personnel. Players are surrounded by family and friends, their player boxes are also filled with agents and sponsors. For Tommy Paul, who won Queens last week, the longer calendar, with the two-week 1000 tournaments, means fewer opportunities to return home. If you want to have friends at all, you have to take them on the road, says Paul. If you want to be able to play all year round, you need to bring a physio. You clearly need a coach. Teams are getting bigger and bigger because we don't have time at home.

Despite the general trend of growing teams, each player has a different perspective on the number of people they prefer to travel with. Sorana Cirstea, who likes to keep her circle small, says: For example, I like to be alone a lot. I am social, but for a certain period of time. Sometimes when I have too many people I think it's too many opinions. I try to vary a bit. Sometimes I don't like having three or four people around me, because I feel like I have to take care of them a bit. It's a personal choice.

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Azarenka has spent a significant portion of her career as a mother, which has meant coordinating the days she travels with her son Leo. I have a child, so it’s a little bit different, she says. I can’t say, ‘OK, you can’t come.’ Too many references now. I think it depends. It probably also depends on where you are mentally. Sometimes, when you’re trying to regroup, you might need a bit more space. When you need more support, you need a bit more people. So I think it depends on your personality and how you’re doing. I think you see ATP players traveling with more friends, people to hang out with. I think the girls want to be more professional and strict.

It doesn’t take much time spent in the player rooms of tournaments around the world to understand the implications of these growing entourages. Not every tournament is built to handle the number of people who arrive each year. Fritz says: At many slams, you have men, women, and 128 people on each side in the first rounds. Getting a treatment table at the French Open this year was virtually impossible for the first few days.

Jamie Baker, tournament director at Wimbledon and former player, says there is no doubt that players' facilities are much busier today than in previous decades. After the second round of the singles, the occupancy does indeed start to decrease, he says, but last year, I remember it like it was yesterday, we had so much rain in the first week during our peak hours. We were currently at the beginning of our expansion, so with our current footprint, our player facilities were absolutely blocked. People sitting on the ground, things like that. Because we were not used to having everyone in at the same time during our peak hours.

With so many accredited people on site, the tournaments also have a number of interesting amenities for the extras, including beauty salons and even a tattoo parlor at the French Open. Baker stresses the importance of quiet areas, where players have more time to relax. At Wimbledon, most players are limited to three accreditations for their team members, but seeded players and former champions are given extras. There are also player-only areas where tournaments restrict where certain team members or guests can enter.

There has been a rush to expand the biggest events. The Australian Opens grounds at Melbourne Park have been transformed over the past decade and the French Open has also expanded its grounds in an effort to accommodate larger entourages and numbers of fans. The All England Club is in the midst of its own expansion plans, with an attempt to create more space in the players' areas and fit the world of tennis comfortably within its halls.

Although the sport has changed in some ways, Azarenka still believes tennis has a long way to go. “I think the science and the data are still quite behind, compared to other sports,” she says. “Compared to golf, compared to soccer, compared to everything. I think they were quite conservative in a way and quite young. Teams are getting a lot bigger, people are using more equipment, people are using more data. But in comparison, it’s quite low right now.”