Tennis is a style of life. It is strawberry and cream of Wimbledon, champagne in Rolland - Graces,

Cups of Australian Open. Anyone interested in tennis and willing to make profitable investments can combine pleasure and profit by becoming a part of this world. In front of you there is a work where you will see how one can get a decent return on his investments, become famous and receive pleasure at the same time.

Have you ever fallen to thinking that investments in tennis can produce a considerable profit? Look at the following. In Table 1 the data on several tennis-players earnings for January and February of 2000 are given.

Of course someone can say: "Well, they are Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Anna Kournikova, aren't they? There are only few such tennis-players." And he will be right, but only partly. It is evident that there are not very many gifted tennis-players. The chances that a tennis-player in whom one will invest his money will become a finalist or a champion are not that big. But who says that in order to carry out repayable investments in a tennis-player, the latter must without fail become "one of the first".

Table 1 Several tennis-players earnings for January and February of 2000

There is no doubt that a profit of investments will be much bigger, if the investor's ward takes one of the first places. But one should not worry very much if the tennis-player fails to achieve even the 1/8 of a final.

The matter is that, prize funds of the famous tournaments, which are held by the World Tennis Association, are rather large, and prize payment to all tournament participants is made [3]. The investor's financial support will give an opportunity to bring up a worthy tennis-player of a world level. In other words, this sportsman will have a sufficient training for participation in such tournaments.

Now let us consider the prospects of investments in tennis-players in details.

The World Tennis Association holds tournaments throughout the year. There are two types of them:

• ATP Tournament & ITF - series of tournaments for men;
• WTA Tournament - series of tournaments for women.

Prize fund of ATP tournaments for the year 2000 is $60 507 750, and prize fund of WTA tournaments is $27 676 000. In 2000 129 such competitions are going to be held: 72 АТР tournaments & 57 WTA tournaments [4].

Let us show an average sum of money, which a typical tennis-player can earn per year, taking the year 2000 as an example. All calculations are given in Table 2.

According to Table 2, an average prize fund of one ATP tournament is $840385 ($60 507 750: 72), and of one WTA tournament is $485 544

($27 676 000: 57).

Let us assume that in each tournament there are on the average 48 participants. So a typical male tennis-player can earn approximately $17 508 ($840 385:48), and an average female tennis-player can earn $10 116 ($485 544:57).

If a tennis-player participates in 24 tournaments per year only (just 2 tournaments per month) of all the tournaments held, then per year a typical male tennis-player will earn $420 192 ($17 508·24), and a typical female tennis-player can receive $242 784 ($10 116·24) (Table 2).

In order to bring up a tennis-player of a world level, it is necessary to invest approximately $55 000 (detailed calculations are given in part "Two components of the Ukrainian young tennis-players' way to the top" of the article) in him per year during 4 or 5 years. In other words, one will invest $220 000 - $275 000 in a tennis-player before the latter will be able to yield a profit. But as we can see from our previous calculations all expenditures can be returned during the tennis-player's first year participation in ATP or WTA tournaments. Moreover, it is even possible that the investor can receive a profit during his ward's participation in the first tournament (it depends on the terms of the contract between investor and a tennis-player).

Besides, one should not forget that all calculations of average earnings per year were done for an average (according to the world rating) tennis-player, which did not achieve even the 1/8 of a final, saying nothing about the 1/4, 1/2 of a final or about a final.

In Ukraine there are already tennis-players playing in the above-mentioned categories. Since the human potential in our country is good (our players have firmly settled in the highest steps of the pedestal in children ratings), one can count on much larger earnings.

The investor, carrying out investments in any project, expects that he will not only return the money soon, but also receive a profit [7, 248]. We have shown that if one makes investments in a talented child this money will be returned and will bring a profit.

But here we must remark that one of the peculiarities of investments in young tennis-players is recoupment of capital investments in some cases only in several years [7, 163]. Of course, a risk of investments not being recouped exists always. Nevertheless, because of a peculiarity of investment in tennis reimbursement, we will consider the risks of this kind of investments in details.

While investing in Ukrainian young tennis-players, one should know that in our country there are all grounds to achieve the best results. There are three components, reducing investment risk in this sphere and assuring success to one's initiative, in Ukraine. They are:

• potential;
• good courts;
• tennis traditions.

Under the potential we understand talented children, going in for tennis for many years, who have achieved excellent results. We mean those tennis-players who have participated not only in regional or national tournaments, but also in world-known large tennis tournaments, organized by the World Tennis Association. These are not mere words. The first place in the world children rating is taken by a tennis-player from Donetsk Julia Beilgerzimer [8; 9]. Also, there are such stars of children tennis, which have been brought in the Donetsk School of the Olympic Reserve, as Dmitry Tolok, Orest Tereshuk, and Maxim Krivonos.

The second component of investors' success is good courts. This prerequisite is also fulfilled in our country. The best tennis courts are the ones situated in Kiev, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Charkov, and Lvov. Good courts call for the best game.

The most experienced Ukrainian coaches and tennis-players can be neither surprised nor frightened by the famous all over the world tournaments, because Ukraine, and especially Donetsk, have had the main potential of perspective young tennis-players among all newly independent states since the times of the USSR.

It is not only because of the playing facilities that Donetsk has become such a well - known tennis center. Our sport school of the Olympic Reserve has brought up such stars as Marina Kroshina and Irina Morozova who were the Champions of the USSR, Elena Eliseenko from Donetsk who was the Champion of Ukraine, Alexander Gruzdin from Lvov who was the first Soviet winner of the European Championship among the youth, and Oleg Egorov who was the Champion of Europe. [10, 130]. The fact that our tennis-players have accustomed not only to participating in the famous tournaments, but also to winning is very important. It is the third component for the success: tennis traditions.

In Donetsk Davis Cup (a tennis tournament among countries) has been repeatedly held. That is, Ukrainian courts and conditions corresponded to the world standards. All this has not disappeared. In post-Soviet time Ukrainian tennis team has already achieved a Davis Cup final [10, 95].

Summing up, tennis traditions in Ukraine and particularly in Donetsk are not only rather profound, but also successfully continued.

Combination of three components - good potential, courts, and profound tennis traditions - reduces investment risk connected with investments in Ukrainian young tennis-players to a marked degree. Those components and one's financial support give a chance to bring up a worthy tennis-player of a world level, and assure investor's success.

We have already shown that if one invests in a talented young tennis-player, these investments both will be definitely returned, and will bring a profit. Someone can remark that for that it is necessary to wait too long, and there are many other ways to win a fortune. Certainly, one can invest in the shares or bonds of a perspective company, or he can keep the money in bank and draw interest for it. In those cases investment risk and risk of losing his money will be minimal, and probability of receiving profit will be maximal.

But in case of investments in tennis we are talking not only about money and profit expected. In our article we address those people, who understand and like tennis, we address the true admirers of this kind of sport. We address those, who, when thinking about our Ukrainian tennis-player having become the first among all young tennis-players in the world, feels proud of his country.

Investors in Ukrainian tennis-players will join a whole army of admirers of this kind of sport living all over the world. Among those being fond of tennis there are English royal family and aristocracy, many famous actors (David Duchovny, George Cluiny, Arnold Schwarzenegger) and many others [11].

When one's tennis ward achieves certain results, the investor's name and his company name will surely be associated with tennis, what will be an additional advertisement of his business.

To summarize, in this part of the article we have shown that investments in tennis-players can produce a considerable profit. In Ukraine there are real grounds in order to achieve success in this sphere. Ukrainian good human potential, courts, profound tennis traditions and one's financial support give a good chance to bring up a worthy tennis-player of a world level, and guarantee investor's financial and intangible success in making investments in young Ukrainian tennis-players.

It is rather difficult to get a profit from investments in a tennis-player, if the latter does not obtain the world's recognition. For that, it is necessary that investor's ward have the corresponding class of game, that is the corresponding preparation.

In order to become a good tennis-player, a young sportsman has to train himself with persistency every day. It is the principal prerequisite to achieve success. Coaches say that a young tennis-player having no super talent but training persistently will attempt in tennis much more than a talented one who has no possibility to have trainings of full value.

What is necessary for a young tennis-player to train himself in Ukraine? Here is a list of his basic necessities:

• tennis rackets, which periodically tear and break ($50-200 for a unit);
• numerous tennis balls, which must be replaced very often as after 1-2 trainings their pile is erased, what does not allow a sportsman to return "twisted" balls ($5-10 for 3 units);
• sport school fee (25 hryvnas a month).

Such a low value of a month subscription permits a young tennis-player to attend twice a week a group, in which many other sportsmen train, to hit a ball against a wall or to practice in a pair with the same "professional" tennis players as he is.

When one goes seriously in for tennis the prices are completely different. One hour of the individual training with a coach costs approximately 30 hryvnas-12 dollars. The same is the price of practicing in a pair with a good sparring-partner, who is usually ex-tennis-player of a high class. Besides, one should practice 2-4 hours a day not taking into account a common physical training with an individual coach.

In general the process of training costs $700-1 200 a month or $10 000-15 000 a year. A young tennis-player should be invested in at the age of 11-12 years, and when he is 15-17 years old he can already bring profits. Consequently, it is necessary to make investments during 4-5 years, that is the expenditures for the training during that time will be $50 000-75 000.

In order to earn good money a tennis-player has to achieve the world's recognition. For that the sportsman must participate not only in Ukrainian tournaments, but also in the world ones organized by the World Tennis Association.

But for participating in such tournaments one's tennis ward must take a certain place in the world rating of tennis-players (he must be at least in the first hundred). His place in this rating will depend on the quantity of the points received by him. On Ukrainian tournaments such international points are either not plaid or plaid in small quantities. Therefore, to "hunt" the points one must participate in the world recognized tournaments. For instance, in the 1/2 of a final of the tennis tournament in Miami the players who lost received 45 points, for comparison, Martina Hingis - the first world racket - has 1 650 points [12].

The tennis-player from the first hundred has to participate in a tournament and earn the points (for each round of different tournaments the different quantity of points is given). For a tennis-player without "name" it is necessary to buy a so-called wild card, so that he could participate in a tournament. The price of wild cards is different on different tournaments: from a few dollars (on Ukrainian tournaments) to a few thousand dollars.

Besides the cost of the wild card, the expenses for the travelling to a place of competition include:

• the cost of the tickets and visas for a tennis-player, his coach (who also has to travel with a sportsman under 18), sometimes for a doctor and/or for a massage-maker (one also should take into account that the most large tournaments are organized not only in Europe, but also in the USA and in Australia);
• internationally valid health insurance;
• living in the hotel (room and board expenses), transportation fees;
• practicing abroad;
• organization fees;
• incidentals.

As a result the expenses for the travelling to a tournament, as the experience shows, make up approximately $35 000-40 000 a year. So that, including the value of the training, bringing up a tennis-player of the world level costs approximately $45 000-55 000 a year during 4-5 years. That is, the total sum of investments in a young sportsman before the investor can secure a profit will be approximately $180 000 - 275 000.

If one decides to invest in young tennis-players, it is absolutely natural that the investor's first question will be how to do that. First of all, he needs to choose the right person on whom to bet.

There are several ways to solve this problem.

1. If the investor has plenty of free time, he can visit the tournaments himself, and choose the most able tennis-player taking into account the opinions of the competitive tennis-players and/or their coaches. It will allow him to make a right choice and to minimize the risk of the interested person's influence on his decision.
2. One can also ask his acquaintance interested in tennis and well-known coaches. In this case the investor will economize his time. But using this means he risks to be deliberately offered a "wrong" sportsman, because his advisers can try to promote their relatives or the children of their friends.
3. The third option is a search of a "gifted" young tennis-player with the help of the special agencies, the addresses of which one can receive in tennis clubs, tennis schools or through the Internet (one of such agencies is situated in Kiev). These agencies have already noticed young sportsmen having large potential.

They can recommend the tennis-player taking the prize places of children tournaments. It is desirable that the investor looks how he trains, how he displays himself on the tournaments, taking into consideration what the coaches of the rival tennis-players and commentators-professionals think about him. It will reduce the risk of accepting of not quite a good offer given by the agency. Thus the investor can combine all three variants of searching his future ward. Though, from all the ways given above he can choose the one which suites him the most.

So, when one has found "a young talent" it is high time the investor started thinking about the financial and legal parts of the matter. These two things are usually reflected in a contract.

Of course, sometimes the parties prefer to keep their relationships on a friendly basis, - without any legal papers. But as the young tennis-player grows older, his professional sport-related activities become more and more time-consuming and expensive. That is when the investor needs to assure himself that the obligations of both parties will be fulfilled. Otherwise, the day might come when the ex-"young talent", now the owner of numerous financial awards, will bail away with a mere "thanks". That is only one of the reasons why the investor should conclude a legal contract with a player, whom he started financing.

In case of concluding a contract, one must take into account two the most important factors:

1. To protect the investor's interests he has to determine exactly how the tennis-player will return the money invested in him. Here one can demonstrate his creativity. Actually, there are few classical patterns of doing that:

• the investor can take all tennis-player's financial and/or other awards received over a certain period of time (for example, for one tournament or for three months a year during several years);
• one can agree upon taking a part of his tennis ward's incomes on a fixed rate (the rates can vary, 20% during several years for example), but one should obligatory indicate the number of years;
• also, sometimes a tennis-player has to give away fixed prearranged sum each year (the number of years is determined).

1. The investor has to pay special attention to the legal questions. To protect him against possible claims in future one should not grudge his money for a good lawyer.

While negotiating the terms of the contract between sportsman and the investor, the latter should make sure that he has talked over their legitimacy with a professional lawyer. The contract has to be signed officially, so, by doing this in advance, the investor will avoid unnecessary uncertainty and save his time and effort (and, maybe, even money) on many things in future.

There is no contract, which would be suitable in any case. Every investor must negotiate the terms with the player (or the player's parents, if he is under 15 [13, 10]) for their own situation. But in any case in the contract one should foresee the fact that after his future ward will have begun to participate in the international adult tennis tournaments held by the World Tennis Association (at the age of 17), he will have to cooperate with the investor for at least two years. During this period the investor will make no additional investments in the tennis-player, but only return the money invested in him and receive a profit as the percentage of his ward's earnings. This per cent must be agreed by the contract to avoid any discords in future.

Why at least two years? It is based on our previous calculations. In the beginning of the article we determined that per year a typical male tennis-player can earn $420 192 and a typical female tennis-player can receive $242 784. After that we showed that before a tennis-player will be able to participate in ATP or WTA tournaments it is necessary to invest $220 000 - $275 000 in him. If one compares these sums he can see that one year is not enough to return the investments and to receive a profit.

Of course we understand that the prospects to wait a profit for more than 6 years are not very attractive, but let us show how the things are going in reality. Usually when making decision about investments people compare the possible profits with the interest on capital kept in bank. Let us compare the profits which can be received when making investments in a Ukrainian young tennis-player and the interest on capital paid per year by the Donetsk PromInvest Bank, which offers the highest interest on capital for the long-term investments among all the Donetsk banks.

If a typical male tennis-player can earn $ 840 384 ($420 192 * 2) per 2 years, and if 2/3 of all this money are paid to investor, then his profit for 7 years will be $285 256 ($840 384 * 2/3 - $275 000), that is $ 40 751 per year. So that the investor's interest on the capital invested will be 14,8 % ($ 40 751 * 100% /$275 000) per year. Of course one could notice that we took the male tennis-player earnings but not those of a female sportsman (which are lower), and that we assumed that 2/3 of all these earnings would be paid to the investor. But one should not forget that we have taken the maximal sum of expenditures and used the earnings of a typical tennis-player. In other cases the interest on capital would be much higher.

The interest on capital which the Donetsk PromInvest Bank offers its clients is 11% per year for the long-term investments. That is, even if the investments in a Ukrainian young tennis-player yield a profit only in 7 years, they will be much more profitable than if one keeps his money in bank.

It is important to remember to indicate in the contract and to certify at the lawyer's that when a tennis-player begins to earn he has no right to leave the investor if the contract remains valid. One should also indicate the penalty for breach of the contract, which his ward will have to pay in case he violates the agreement.

The costs of professional sports may vary from year to year, not mentioning the differences in the sums needed monthly. That is why the investor has to choose between two basic ways of financing this activity. It can be either an agreement about a certain sum, which a player's side can spend the way, he likes, or it can be a description of activities that will be paid for.

Let us consider the structure of expenses for bringing up a perspective tennis-player. Its elements are:

1. Travelling to a place of competition
2. Competitions (Including playing permits, 5-7 identical tennis rackets, changing the strings, tennis balls, outfit, special tennis bags, incidentals).
3. Practices (Including tennis courts, a coach, numerous tennis balls (100-200) which must be replaced every 2-3 months, special practicing equipment - tennis machine, master classes with professional tennis players, practicing in a pair, other sport activities which are included in a training plan, tennis school fees, incidentals.)
4. Other

• There may arise such problem as nerves. It may affect even a high performer's game. That means that a child will need a professional help and/or medicines that would calm down his/her anxiousness during the game.
• etc.

Now, when we gave an approximate list of spending items (hereinafter we shall call them #1, #2, #3 and #4), the investor can choose which ones will be paid for by him and which ones will be financed by child's parents.

Usually the investors are asked to pay for the international competitions (#1 and #2). Tournaments, which are held within the limits of the home country and NIS, no matter how expensive they seem, cannot be compared to the international ones neither by costs, nor by the class of competitors. The faster the young tennis-player shows a good result abroad, the sooner he will make the way to the significant financial rewards. And so will the investor. So, the choice of the time when a tennis player should be capable to show his best abroad means a lot, since both money and sport prestige are at stake.

When the investors are dealing with a beginner, most often the contract describes financial help in training process (#3). After a talented child has learned how to hit a ball and before going to international battlefields there is always a certain period of time. It is the financing of practices what adds 90% of success probability to the 10% of talent's share at this age. That is when everything is being decided. If a tennis-player has good practicing conditions at this time, he will get a real chance to develop into a tennis genius later on.

The other things (#4) are rarely invested, but sometimes a tennis-player can be coming from a family, which does not have an opportunity to provide him with all of that. That is when the investor can become a real magician for this child.

The performance of a player over a certain period should be evaluated in order to make any conclusions. The investor can continue the cooperation on the same terms, he can increase or decrease the sums of investments or stop dealing with this person at all.

The input, both financial, and intangible, must be compared to the outcome. The investor himself, especially if he is not exactly a tennis guru, must rely on the advice of the coach and independent, non-interested party as well.

So, as one can see, the further cooperation is basically the waiting for dividends. Nevertheless, unlike in production, one should never forget that he is dealing with people, who have their own strong and weak points. When the time to renew the contract has come, the investor must evaluate all pros and cons before making a final decision.

In this article we set ourselves a task to define why the potential investors interested in tennis should carry out investments in Ukrainian talented young tennis-players and how they can find the reliable object of investments.

We hope that we managed to do that and to prove that tennis is a profit-yielding activity. From the very beginning one could see that investments in tennis-players can produce a considerable profit. Although the total sum of investments in a young sportsman before the investor can secure a profit will be approximately $220 000 - 275 000 for 5 years, these expenses are not very big if one takes into account the expected profits of $285 256 which he can receive in 7 years. That is, the investor will earn $40 751 per year. In other words, his interest on the capital invested will be 14,8% per year. For the comparison the interest on capital which the Donetsk PromInvest Bank offers its clients is 11% per year for the long-term investments.

The investor is sure to receive such a profit, because in our country there are real grounds to achieve financial and intangible success in this sphere. They are potential of tennis-players, good tennis courts, and tennis traditions. Combination of these components reduces investment risk connected with investments in Ukrainian young tennis-players to a marked degree, and gives the investor a chance to bring up a worthy tennis-player of a world level.

But a lot in reducing the risk of this kind of investments depends on the person willing to make investments. To bring it to nought he should stick to the following action guide.

First of all, the investor must find a really worthwhile young tennis-player to make investments in him. There are 3 ways to solve this problem: the investor can do it himself, with the help of his friends, or using the special agencies.

Although each of these means has its advantages, and the investor can choose the one which suites him the most, we would advise to rely upon the experience of the professionals, that is, the experience of the special agencies. They have already noticed young sportsmen having large potential, and can recommend a tennis-player taking the prize places of children tournaments. Thus, the investor will economize his time for searching not only a "gifted" young tennis-player but also a good lawyer. Because such organizations employ professional lawyers with the help of which one can conclude a reliable contract with his future ward.

So that, the second investor's step to remove the investment risk in tennis-players is to conclude a good contract with a player whom he has found. One must take into account the following:

1. Contracts between sportsman and his investor must be legally concluded and interpreted on the basis of the Constitution, Civil Code of Ukraine and other laws applicable in case of violation. The contract has to be signed officially.
2. One should pay special attention to the legal questions concerning the capacity of the tennis-players of age and the validity of the transactions made by them. Thus the investor will protect himself against possible claims in future.
3. To protect his interests the investor has to determine exactly how the tennis-player will return the money invested in him.
4. One should also foresee the fact that after his future ward will have begun to participate in the international adult tennis tournaments held by the World Tennis Association (at the age of 17), he will have to cooperate with the investor for at least two years. It is a guarantee of investor's receiving the profits on the capital invested.
5. The investor should not forget to indicate the penalty for breach of the contract, which his ward will have to pay in case he violates the contract.

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