The grind behind the glamour: What I learnt after six months on the tennis tour

Carlos Alcaraz. (Getty/Clive Brunskill)

No sport drains you quite like tennis.

After spending the past six months travelling the tennis tour, I get it – this "burnout" that players are talking more and more about.

Traversing through five continents and different countries from Australia to Argentina, Brazil and the USA – then across to Morocco, Italy, Spain and France, I finally reached my final event, Wimbledon.

And even at the most uplifting place in tennis, I still felt somewhat spent.

Living out of a suitcase, constantly navigating airports (26 on my trip!), and bouncing from one tournament to the next with fluctuating stakes takes a mental toll. Add in constant ranking pressure, financial stress and injury setbacks – it's brutal.

So, when players – especially Australians or those based far from tennis' epicentre in Europe – admit to feeling burnt out, I have some sympathy.

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We know tennis doesn't offer much time to breathe. You can choose to rest. But if you stop, you fall behind.

For the top 10, that's a decision they can often afford to make. The withdrawal lists at this week's Canadian Open showed just that, with Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka among many stars to pull out. But for those fighting for top 100 survival, it's not so simple. One week off can mean missing a Slam main draw cut, halting momentum, or losing potential financial security.

Sitting down with Australian Adam Walton in Paris, that reality became clearer to me.

"There's always that next thing," Walton stated, summing up life on tour in one line.

"A big goal for me is to make the Grand Slam cuts. So, if I'm not in those, I've got to keep playing. You get enough points to make the Wimbledon cut, then next thing you try to make the US Open cut, then after the US Open, you're battling to try and make the Australian Open cut.

"The easy solution is to be better, then you don't have to play as much," Walton jokingly added.

On the road, you constantly hear stories of players pushing through injury and pain to play. There's no backup striker or point guard to come into the rotation. And that one event you consider missing could end up being the one where you receive a favourable draw, Lucky Loser, retirement, or withdrawal. You just never know how one week could change your career fortunes.

When the burnout discussion peaked in the media cycle during the European swing, I saw countless comments criticising the players, suggesting they have it very good.

And for those at the top, they absolutely do. But in comparison to other professional sports, the 45-week-long travelling tennis tour is a unique mental challenge – and it's tougher for those with a three-digit ranking.

26-year-old Walton, who completed a degree whilst playing tennis at the University of Tennessee, virtually started his pro career from scratch in June 2022.

"This is really my second year of actually profiting. In 2023, every week I was just trying to break even. Once you start making the Slams, you can actually start profiting," he said.

Walton, who didn't pay for a coach in 2023, now shares Mark Draper with compatriot Rinky Hijikata, and after some recent prize money injections, he's living tennis' direct-flight 'glamorous' life since cracking the top 100.

"You probably splurge a little bit more on yourself, like you're buying maybe a better flight route. Two years ago, I might've had to do two or three stopovers, whereas now, if there's a direct or a one-stop flight, even if it's a bit more, I'd still maybe do it just to freshen up," Walton shared, on one way he spends his Grand Slam earnings.

"So just the one, two percenters, maybe they go a long way…help you win that one match. You've got to invest in yourself to make more money."

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The general fan would have quite an inaccurate view of how an average tennis player lives and travels.

In Rome, Aussie Kimberly Birrell spoke about the strange contrast of playing on Centre Court one day and flying economy, down the back of the plane, the next. But that sums up the life of most tennis players: glamorous on the surface and brutal behind closed doors.

"If you play a team sport, you have zero professional sporting costs, whereas we have to pay to play," Walton discussed.

"You have to pay a coach, the top guys have physios – more expenses than me – and then hotels and flights, like hundreds of thousands of dollars every year just to play the sport."

The environment of team sports often neutralises this advantage that one can create from personal expenses. But in tennis, a sport with a fast scaling pay structure and extremely high expenditure requirement, the performance gap only widens.

Walton, who has played world No.2 Carlos Alcaraz, No.3 Alexander Zverev, and No.4 Taylor Fritz this year, is spending far less than those opponents on his performance.

So, they're not just better players, but they're better resourced in every way – be it private or first-class flights, better accommodation, full-time physios, trainers, or analysts – making it incredibly difficult to bridge the gap.

For a superstar like Alcaraz, there's admittedly a different challenge in playing so many matches. Being at tournaments from start to end, and then flying straight to the next one, is exhausting in its own right, but it's a much nicer problem to have.

For Alcaraz, that travel is with a full team, year-round, often staying in large houses together. It's a sense of team that many players could only dream of.

"It can get lonely," Walton said of the tennis tour.

"I really hate being by myself, too. Some weeks, my girlfriend is here, but she can't come on the road every week… I try to mingle with the other Australians, play cards at dinner," Walton said in finding camaraderie on tour.

"And it's also so bad because your results dictate your mood, and your mood can pile further onto your results."

It's a theme I heard repeatedly over the past six months: that consecutive losses pile on the internal pressure. The rule goes that you never want to lose three on the trot – that becomes almost a month without a win, and from there, every match feels like increasingly higher stakes.

"If you lose a few in a row, you start second-guessing [your game] and you're quite anxious every time you go on a practice court. It can be tough," Walton revealed.

"Last year, I went on an eight-match losing streak in the United States, and it’s like, you're not match fit, but you also want to take a break, because you're not winning… just going in and practicing while everyone else is competing, it can get kind of s**t."

Tennis' trap: you feel like you need a break, but taking one only adds more pressure. It's a sport of constant motion. And while that creates the ultimate mental challenge, it's also part of tennis' beauty.

Tournaments every week for almost the entire year give fans everywhere the chance to have their week, where the best in the world come to their city or country – and seeing it first-hand, they embrace it.

There are incredible highs and shattering lows, and the wide range of emotions makes the tennis tour what it is.

Ultimately, spending six months living the ride was an unforgettable experience. But 11 months, every year? I'm not sure I'd survive it.

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