A lot of people tell me that tennis is a very expensive sport to pursue. That a developing country like India can ill afford to play the game due to the costs involved. Even at the government level, there is a mindset that tennis is a rich man’s game. (A study conducted by the US Tennis Association showed that an average season as a professional would cost a player $143,000 (over Rs 1 crore) in expenses.)

Yes, I agree tennis is an expensive sport, but tennis is also a game where if you are at the top 250 in rankings, you are making more money than many other sports persons, including the top 250 athletes from track and field.

Yes flights are expensive, hotels are expensive, coaching fees are expensive, flying coaches around the world are incredibly expensive, but all these are things which come much later in your career. Early on in your career, it’s easy to work around those expenses.

When I was starting out, I used to travel in groups of six to eight kids with one two coaches at the maximum. What you did was try to share coaches.

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