Labour Supply Decisions of Professional Tennis Players: Determinants of Tournament Entry

• Published in: European sport management quarterly Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 333 - 344
• Main Authors: Du Bois, Cind, Heyndels, Bruno
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 01.09.2009
• Subjects: Athletes; Labor; Money; Sports; Status
• ISSN: 1618-4742; 1746-031X
• DOI: 10.1080/16184740903024102

In this paper we study the labour supply of professional tennis players. We examine the entry decisions of the top ten players of the 2007 ATP ( Association of Tennis Professionals ) ranking for the three most recent seasons. Next to some tournament characteristics, such as having a gold label or not, prize money and the date of the tournament as measured by the number of weeks before a Grand Slam, some player characteristics seem to be determinant in the decision on whether or not to play a tournament. The results indicate that players are more likely to enter a tournament if the tournament is held in their home country and if they had played in the tournament before. The ranking of the player on the ATP list has a negative impact on our entry variable, i.e. the probability of entering a tournament is smaller for higher-ranked players.