116. ACCESS ALL AREAS?

As a player progresses up the rungs of the pro tennis tour, she will find that, more often than not, there becomes a need for her to apply in advance for ‘accreditation’ or ‘credentials’ for herself and her support team prior to the start of a tournament.

The amount of detail and benefits attached to these credentials increases with the level of tournament, so for example, the credentials/accreditation pass at an ITF W75 or W100 event will do little more than let the player and her support team into the Players Lounge and gym whereas at a Grand Slam, an Accreditation Pass is like gold dust and will permit not only access to a variety of restricted areas (the gym, practice courts etc), but also more typically carry with it a monetary value for food and drinks in the players restaurants, and possibly also added benefits, such as free hair cuts and massages.

The number of Accreditation Passes a player can apply for varies according to the tournament level. At the lower level events, she may be permitted to have 1 or 2 support team members (including her coach). At Grand Slams this number can increase to 3 or 4 – even more for the higher level seeds. This enables player to obtain passes for close family and friends, which means that they too get the chance to be part of their players’ Grand Slam experience, which clearly is something special.

A player may also have access to a limited number of tickets to the event, usually Ground Passes, on the day(s) that she is playing. This is not always the case, but certainly at Grand Slam events, this benefit does exist. Now whether or not the player chooses to accept these free tickets is entirely up to her. She may have family and friends that want to come and watch her play or alternatively, she may decide to access the tickets and then pass them onto another player to give them a chance to invite their close relations into the grounds. This can happen a lot at the Grand Slams where the players from the host country want family and friends to come to watch and players from much further afield have no one to benefit from their passes. So don’t be surprised if your player gets asked for her passes on occasion! Certainly this has happened to my player on many times, especially when she was in Australia and the US and had no one to give her passes to. But it works both ways as it meant that she could seek spare passes for Wimbledon if she needed them – a kind of reciprocal deal so to speak!

In addition to the above, players may occasionally be given access to ticketed seats. When I attended the Australian Open Juniors with my player, it was possible for the players to put their names down for access to one of the show courts for an evening session. This was great because it enabled us to go and watch ‘live’ the then British number 1, Jo Konta, play Caroline Wozniacki, for a place in the 4th round. Similarly, using our accreditation passes, we managed to gain access to the 2017 semi final match between Coco Vandeweghe and Madison Keys, in the Arthur Ashe stadium at the US Open. That was a great experience too and one not to be forgotten.

So one of the ‘perks’ of being a player and a member of her Player Support Team (PST), is that you get to go ‘behind the scenes’ at the big events and can ‘mingle’ with the top players. One of the good sides of life on the reality tennis tour!

#realitytennis

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