Does a player’s life change when they crack the top 20s?

Life on tour for anyone ranked in the mid hundreds like 400+ are basically playing in ITF circuits, giving it all they got to win and if they do, to gain entry into the more important tournaments and Grand Slams by a wild card. Many are barely making financial ends meet and on occasion if they win the qualifying rounds to get into the main draw, a top rank player will be their opponent which will challenge their abilities and strategies on being a better player.

The stresses and pressures from being ranked in the hundreds up to the top 20s are different, but yet still pressure. Japan’s Kei Nishikori admits that he really can’t even live in his home country of Japan. “If I stayed in Japan, I think I would go crazy…there are lots of things I couldn’t do”. The tournament director of the Tokyo Open even says that they can’t post the hour that Nishikori practices for fear of bedlam and destruction. If Nishikori were ranked 100 or 400, it wouldn’t be an issue. Australia’s Nick Kyrgios had recently celebrated his 21st birthday playing a tournament in Portugal. He had made the comment that “There are 50 things I would rather be doing on my birthday”. It might be obvious that playing tennis isn’t one of them. Nick is in the top 20 and …

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