Andy Roddick has highlighted the ongoing issue plaguing grass court tournaments in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to the 500 events of Halle and Queen\u2019s Club on the ATP Tour<\/a>, one couldn\u2019t help but notice the disparity in the strength of the lineups.<\/p>\n While at the German tournament, six of the world\u2019s top 10 players were present; in London, Alex de Minaur was the sole representative from that lofty category.<\/p>\n This is not a new trend. For instance, in the UK, international players are taxed on their prize money, naturally, but also for their performance bonuses, appearance fees, image rights, sponsorship deals, brand endorsements and more.<\/p>\n The 2026 champions at Halle and Queen\u2019s Club will walk away with \u20ac483,145 (\u00a3419,000) but former world No 1 Roddick pointed out that the take home pay between the two is vastly different.<\/p>\n Wimbledon withdrawals: 11 stars out as Carlos Alcaraz among 4 absent top 20 stars<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Queen\u2019s Club: Tommy Paul calls for big grass-court schedule changes<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n He said on the latest episode of Served<\/a>, \u201cObviously, we\u2019re not tax experts, but they [players] skip parts of the British grass court season now and play events in Germany and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine if you had the same opportunity for points or upward mobility in your job but one cost you 40% more and that\u2019s where we basically land.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a certain amount of weeks where you get taxed because you\u2019ve made the money in England, that tax doesn\u2019t exist in Germany.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you win Halle and you win Queen\u2019s, you win the same amount of money. But your takeaway after taxes is like a 40% (to 45%) difference. Which is a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n Three-time Wimbledon<\/a> finalist Roddick<\/a> repeatedly chose Queen\u2019s over Halle as he felt it gave him the best preparation to win at SW19. He also was handed hefty appearance fees to attend \u2013 a luxury not all players are offered.<\/p>\n Incidentally, back in 2024, renowned sports agent Max Eisenbud appeared on Roddick\u2019s podcast and hypothesised why Roger Federer<\/a> always chose Halle over Queen\u2019s throughout his career.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cTennis players living in Monte Carlo and now Dubai, they don\u2019t pay any income tax, but when they go into these countries, they get withheld all the prize money\u2026 There is a reason why Fed never got ready for Wimbledon in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n This issue is nothing new but it seems the draw quality is becoming more lopsided at both grass court events these days.<\/p>\n Perhaps Rafael Nadal<\/a> put it best back in 2011.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cThe truth is, in the UK you have a big regime for tax, it\u2019s not about the money for playing. They [HMRC] take from the sponsors, from Babolat, from Nike and from my watches.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is very difficult. I am playing in the UK and losing money. I did a lot more for the last four years, but it is more and more difficult to play in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n Until there are big changes, this drip, drip, drip, drip may continue.<\/p>\n WHAT ELSE? Jack Draper leaves leading injury expert concerned as Brit faces \u2018real question\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Rafael Nadal\u2019s 15-year warning still rings true as Queen\u2019s loses out to Halle<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Andy Roddick has highlighted the ongoing issue plaguing grass court tournaments in the United Kingdom. In the lead-up to the 500 events of Halle and Queen\u2019s Club on the ATP Tour, one couldn\u2019t help but notice the disparity in the strength of the lineups. While at the German tournament, six of the world\u2019s top 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/strong><\/h2>\n