Noah Rubin knew the moment he had reached the limits of his exhaustion.

From the highs of winning the Wimbledon junior title in 2014 and a successful first year as a professional tennis player, by 2018, the American felt his career was spiraling downwards. Sat alone in a Spanish hotel room, he had just gone out of a lower-tier Challenger tournament in the qualifying rounds, losing to an opponent he should have beaten.

"I was crying hysterically by myself with all the lights off," Rubin told DW. "I'm just like: 'What am I doing here? Is there any real true happiness and stability in this sport?' And I think we got to the answer of: 'No, there's not.'"

Rubin's story is the rule rather than the exception in tennis, which is perceived to be a glamorous and lucrative sport. The reality, though, is often the opposite.

Every year, hundreds of players plug away on the professional circuit, traveling from tournament to tournament while struggling to make ends meet. Many don't even win enough prize money to offset their costs.

"It ends up with anxiety and depression," Rubin said. "How dark it is to travel to some unknown locations by yourself, trying to find any means of either happiness or comfort, knowing that you're about to hop on this court and not only do you have to win one match, but you have to grind this through."

Djokovic's group suing for better pay

At Wimbledon, one of tennis' four Grand Slam tournaments, the men's and women's champions will each pocket £3 million (€3.52 million, $4.12 million) in prize money this year. Even a player who loses in the first round will take home £66,000.

However, outside of these major tournaments, the pickings are far slimmer.

"If you don't do well at a Grand Slam, you're not making money," said Rubin, who hit a career high of world No. 125 before finally retiring last year.

Poor player pay is one of the reasons why the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), an independent group, is suing tennis' governing bodies. The organization, which was co-founded by Novak Djokovic, wants to completely change the way the sport operates.

According to the PTPA, 70% of the world's top 1,000 male and female players earn less than $50,000 per year in prize money; 80% of that group earn less than what their season costs them.

The PTPA argues that players should get a bigger slice of tournament revenue, claiming they currently only get around 17% of the pie. In the NBA and NHL in the United States, for example, basketballers and ice hockey players receive half of their league's revenue.

"Tennis compares very poorly to every sport by every metric in terms of player remuneration," Ahmad Nassar, the PTPA's executive director, told DW, emphasizing that athletes' pay in other major sports "dwarfs what we see in tennis."

Players must fend for themselves

Unlike their counterparts in the top US sports leagues, whose salaries are negotiated through collective bargaining, professional tennis players are effectively freelancers, earning based on their performance and having to cover their own expenses. These include flights, and the accommodation and salaries of their support team.

Rubin estimates the cost of hiring a coach and physio to be as much as $5,000 per week. But a poor run of form can exacerbate the feeling of hopelessness. Sometimes, to save money, the temptation is to go without.

"When you have a few bad weeks, you're like: 'What am I paying for?'" the 29-year-old said. "It's not a personal attack on the coach that you're with. I'm losing and I'm losing money to him on top of it.

"You continually fight this uphill battle of the ranking system. It's exhausting. And dealing with the injuries on top, dealing with the finances and the travel that you have to do. There's just so much that goes into it."

PTPA wants 'real and lasting change'

The PTPA's lawsuit, which it filed in March 2025, accused tennis' governing bodies of working like a "cartel" to keep player earnings low, among other things.

"We're taking this bitter medicine right now that we had all hoped to avoid, but things weren't changing," Nassar said. "We think that this will be a catalyst for real and lasting change, not just over the next few years, but for the long haul."

The ATP and WTA Tours, which run men's and women's tennis, respectively, have sought to have the lawsuit thrown out, complaining it is "entirely without merit" (ATP) and "regrettable and misguided" (WTA). Defending themselves, both tours pointed out various financial benefits for players that have been introduced in recent years.

For example, the ATP's "Baseline" program provides a tiered, guaranteed income for male players ranked up to 250 in the world. Those in the lowest category receive a minimum annual income of $100,000.

Nassar questioned how many players would actually be able to make a living from such programs. "The players are sick and tired of hearing platitudes that sound good, but in the real world have no effect," he said.

Rubin: 'Very few people make it'

Rubin, who is one of 12 current and former players named as plaintiffs in the PTPA's lawsuit, says he is grateful for the opportunities and experiences tennis afforded him, but believes the sport needs to come clean about the costs and sacrifices involved.

"Tell us that we're not going to make money," he said. "Tell us that it's going to be a tremendous uphill battle.

"My whole new thing is redefining success as a tennis player. Nobody makes it, right? There are very few people who do. The percentages are so small."

Edited by: Chuck Penfold.