Once upon a time, there was a split between pro and amateur tennis. Amateur tennis was more of the Olympian ideal. No money except for basic expenses (food, travel, etc). Of course, the lack of money meant that most good amateurs had to become pros to make money, and the poorer you were, the sooner you decided to become pro. Roy Emerson won as many Slams as he did because he stayed amateur for longer. Rod Laver won a Slam as an amateur in 1962. If he could afford it, he could have been an amateur all his life and won several Slams.
Instead, Laver became pro. There were some pro tournaments, the pro analog of the French and US Open (in those days, they were amateur tournaments, so “open” wasn’t part of their name). Pros went “barnstorming” much like rock stars, going from city to city, to fans who watched these exhibitions. Often, to make the game more exciting, they changed up the rules, such as disallowing second serves, and the like. Laver lost a lot initially, but the grind of playing with the best pro players of the day honed his game until he could one day return back to playing the tournaments that were once banned to pros.
Exhibitions were once a bit more common than they are now. Usually, after Wimbledon, John McEnroe would go on a mini-barnstorming tour of the US playing exhibitions in weeks he wasn’t playing tournaments. Sometimes, they would have an invitational tournament. Tennis Channel shows a World Invitation Tennis Championship from the mid 1970s where top pros, men and women, came to South Carolina for some exo money.
Perhaps due to the demands of the pro circuit, pros now play plenty of tournaments. Federer and Nadal play about 20 tournaments a year, which occupy about 26 weeks of the year. They rest and train at other points of the year, but play exhibitions here and there.
The one “big” exhibition that attracts Federer and Nadal is held in Abu Dhabi. In its third year of existence, the Mubadala World Tennis Championships has often had its share of top players (though Djokovic seems to have not played there). 6 players are invited. Federer and Nadal get a bye the first round. This year, Berdych, Baghdatis, Soderling, and Tsonga. Berdych beat Baghdatis in 3 sets and Soderling beat Tsonga in 3 sets as well.
Federer beat Soderling once again (although Soderling did beat Federer last year at this event) and Nadal beat Berdych to set up the final that all the attendees want. As exhibitions go, the players do seem to take it more seriously. After all, who doesn’t want a Federer-Nadal final, and yet, this is the first year they’ve had this final.
Most exhibitions are a little less serious, such as the charity event between Federer and Nadal just before Christmas. However, this event and the Hopman Cup appear to be events where players do try to win.
Both Federer and Nadal will head over to Doha after this event and play their only official ATP event before the Australian Open. Meanwhile, Murray and Djokovic are in Australia getting ready for the Hopman Cup, in the most star-studded field that exhibition has had in a while.
