Inside 'super expensive' life of tennis stars who don't earn as much as Sinner and Alcaraz

Tallon Griekspoor has given a no-holds-barred insight into the life of a tennis player, explaining just how expensive it is to compete on the tour. The world No. 37 urged "young guys" not to compare themselves with the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz as he outlined the difficulty of climbing up the ranks.

Griekspoor himself went on a long journey to reach the upper echelons of the game, making his top 100 debut when he was 25 years old. The Dutch tennis star had to invest all of his money back into his tennis, and he noted how those ranked around No. 250 were often left struggling.

Tennis may look like a lucrative sport for those at the top of the game. Aged just 23 and 21 respectively, Sinner and Alcaraz have already racked up £30million in prize money each during their young careers.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic has earned a staggering record £144m - and that doesn't include sponsorships. However, Dutch tennis star Griekspoor has shed light on the bleak realities of being a lower-ranked player on the professional circuit.

"Well, first of all, tennis is super expensive. That's the thing, you need to pay for your hotel, your travel," the 28-year-old told Scope Sports.

"If you're a soccer team, everything gets paid for, you get the money every month in the bank. In tennis, you need to perform to earn money.

"I think still a lot of guys who are around No. 250, they go to Grand Slam qualies, they don't have a coach. They do it by themselves because it's too expensive and they're fighting to pay for their coach, pay for their physio."

The two-time title winner sent a reality check to those who thought they would have the life of a young champion.

He continued: "We're not talking here about Sinner and Alcaraz, those are guys you cannot compare yourself with them.

"That's what I always tell the young guys as well. Those guys are like diamonds, they're one out of a million, they have huge contracts. All the money I earned, I was basically investing straight away."

It's not just the finances that are difficult to deal with - Griekspoor also shed light on the mental pressures of reaching the top of the sport.

"Every kid who starts playing tennis in my eyes goes like, 'I want to make top 100'. I felt like I had the level but mentally I was not ready to be a top 100 player yet," he said.

"And then at a certain point, the click just came. You start to win the Challenger, you win another one, and the ranking goes up. You get close to the top 100 and at that point, I really thought, 'Okay, now I'm ready to go to the top 100'.

"And at the same time, I went really fast to No. 44, 45 in the world. I had to play all the Masters 1000, all of a sudden I was straight in the Masters 1000, and at that time I was not ready for that yet.

"I mean, I was ready to be a top 100 player but all of a sudden I was playing the big guys every week. And those are also things that you have to experience during the career."

Griekspoor has since established himself as a dangerous player in any draw. After cracking the top 100 in 2021, he suffered a dip in form a year later. But he peaked at No. 21 in 2023 and is now a mainstay in the world's top 50.

Last month, the Dutchman earned the biggest win of his career over world No. 2 Alexander Zverev in Indian Wells. He also stunned Daniil Medvedev in Dubai in February.