It has seemed to me that we've had relatively few retirements over the past couple of years, which correlates nicely to the aging of the tour and/or lack of younger players. This topic has been discussed at some length on this board, but I went back looked at seeds for the '09 Aussie Open (5 years ago) to how many of those players have hung up the racquet. One may theorize that in 5 years half of those players should have retired, give that 10 years is a rough amount of time a given player is playing tour-level events.
So first off, here is the list:
-Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray, Tsonga, Simon, Roddick, Del Potro
-Blake, Nalbandian, Ferrer, Monfils, Gonzalez, Verdasco, Wawrinka, Soderling
-Almagro, Andreev, Cilic, Berdych, Robredo, Stepanek, Fish, Gasquet
-Karlovic, Safin, Lopez, Mathieu, Tursunov, Schuettler, Melzer, Kohlschreiber
Of these players:
-23 (72%) are still playing on tour
-7 (22%) are retired: Roddick, Blake, Nalbandian, Gonzalez, Andreev, Safin, Schuettler
-2 (6%) are struggling with health issues and likely won't play again: Soderling, Fish
Of the men still on tour, 20 of 23 were seeds at the Aussie Open this year (or would have been had they been healthy). The three unseeded were Stepanek, Karlovic, and Mathieu. That number was surprising to me.
I'm curious to hear your comments on this. I would have expected more than 9 players to be retired/out of tennis 5 years later. By my count, 17 of those 32 men are now over 30, so only half those over 30 have retired. But most of the ones that are playing are still doing so at a high level. So I guess my point is players are playing longer (though I admit I haven't compared this data to 2004 to 2009 for instance - a subject for another past perhaps) and that is helping to prevent younger players from coming up. Also one incentive I haven't heard mentioned much is the money (which it always comes down to anyway). With the growth of prize money, especially for first round slam losers, a players who wanders around the top 100 will collect a 6-figure paycheck for the 4 slams alone not to mention the smaller tournaments and sponsorships etc. I don't know what coaches and physios and travel of course all add up to costing but I would venture it's easier for say the no. 80 ranked player to make a living at tennis now than even 5 years ago.
For comparison, 9 of the 32 women's '09 AO seeds are now retired plus Safina. But only 14 of the 22 remaining players was seeded at this past AO. So similar retirement results but the remaning women have not been nearly as consistent as the men.
So first off, here is the list:
-Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray, Tsonga, Simon, Roddick, Del Potro
-Blake, Nalbandian, Ferrer, Monfils, Gonzalez, Verdasco, Wawrinka, Soderling
-Almagro, Andreev, Cilic, Berdych, Robredo, Stepanek, Fish, Gasquet
-Karlovic, Safin, Lopez, Mathieu, Tursunov, Schuettler, Melzer, Kohlschreiber
Of these players:
-23 (72%) are still playing on tour
-7 (22%) are retired: Roddick, Blake, Nalbandian, Gonzalez, Andreev, Safin, Schuettler
-2 (6%) are struggling with health issues and likely won't play again: Soderling, Fish
Of the men still on tour, 20 of 23 were seeds at the Aussie Open this year (or would have been had they been healthy). The three unseeded were Stepanek, Karlovic, and Mathieu. That number was surprising to me.
I'm curious to hear your comments on this. I would have expected more than 9 players to be retired/out of tennis 5 years later. By my count, 17 of those 32 men are now over 30, so only half those over 30 have retired. But most of the ones that are playing are still doing so at a high level. So I guess my point is players are playing longer (though I admit I haven't compared this data to 2004 to 2009 for instance - a subject for another past perhaps) and that is helping to prevent younger players from coming up. Also one incentive I haven't heard mentioned much is the money (which it always comes down to anyway). With the growth of prize money, especially for first round slam losers, a players who wanders around the top 100 will collect a 6-figure paycheck for the 4 slams alone not to mention the smaller tournaments and sponsorships etc. I don't know what coaches and physios and travel of course all add up to costing but I would venture it's easier for say the no. 80 ranked player to make a living at tennis now than even 5 years ago.
For comparison, 9 of the 32 women's '09 AO seeds are now retired plus Safina. But only 14 of the 22 remaining players was seeded at this past AO. So similar retirement results but the remaning women have not been nearly as consistent as the men.
The supposed guy who wrote the defamatory remarks about Hewitt and not he himself. Yeah right! 
