World No. 11 Daniil Medvedev shared his thoughts on the cost of hiring a coach with top-level playing experience and how much he would be willing to pay.
Q: Many players are now bringing in former athletes. You had this experience, working with Igor Andreev and Gilles Simon. Players have told me that when inquiries were made about bringing in someone like Connors or Martina Navratilova, the weekly price was astronomical – 30-35 thousand euros or dollars. How much would you pay a top player, what maximum amount would you consider reasonable for a big, top athlete?
A: Depends on who it is – for Novak [Djokovic], I think I`d pay a lot (laughs). It`s an interesting question, and it all depends on how you negotiate and what you`re looking for. I worked with Igor Andreev, and that was focused on clay, although initially, we didn`t know how many years we`d cooperate – in the end, it was about two years. With Gilles Simon, we also planned to work until the end of my career, but it didn`t work out, that happens.
Paying 30 thousand a week until the end of your career is very difficult. I would be willing to pay a lot to Novak, but only to learn something – I`m not sure I could work with him for a long time. For long-term work, I wouldn`t agree to pay more than 20 thousand a week to anyone. If you take, say, 10–15 weeks a year, that`s already 200-300 thousand, and for 20 weeks – 400 thousand, which is a significant sum.
But if it`s about short-term work, for instance, hiring someone like Roger [Federer] for four weeks to gain specific knowledge or experience, then I might pay more – maybe even 50 thousand, if it`s someone of Roger`s caliber. But it`s not just about the money here.
For people like Roger, it`s not about earning money, but about status. He won`t work for free, but neither is it to become richer. He might ask for 50 thousand, for example, simply because he`s one of the best in the world. It`s not meant to bankrupt you, but to show his value. But that`s a question for him, I don`t know exactly.
Q: Imagine if all prize money in tennis was removed. All tournaments remain, there`s no prize money, nothing is paid at all. You have a Slam, you were world No. 1, everything is fine. Would you continue playing?
A: I`d stop immediately.
Q: Stop immediately? Why? Isn`t it about passion?
A: Tennis is a job for me. I would find another job with the same excitement for which I would earn some money. Not necessarily a lot, but some.
Q: And can another job evoke the same emotions as tennis?
A: Of course. Racing.
Q: Well, would you get paid for racing?
A: It`s unlikely I`d get paid for racing itself, no. I`d find something else. Padel. I don`t know, something related to a racket. Well, it doesn`t matter what – pickleball, padel – something that pays. You can find excitement in business too, actually; I know some businessmen, it`s all the same. Everyone wants to be the best; someone, I won`t name names, has 10 billion. What is he living for? He wants 11, he wants 12, he doesn`t want to be 100th in the world on Forbes, but 50th. He doesn`t want to be 50th, but Top 40, Top 30, Top 20, Top 10. But they wouldn`t do it for free. For them, it`s not about the money itself, but if they stopped getting paid, they would switch to something else where they could become better.
