"Without €50,000 per year, your talent is no longer enough": the reality of private academies

World tennis has undergone a brutal transformation: high-end private academies, now indispensable, display stratospheric prices.

© AFP

Arthur Millot

le 05/12/2025 à 18h38

2 min to read

Evert Nadal Rune

A staggering entry price: the dream now costs between €50,000 and €90,000 per year

For several years, the private model has become established in the landscape of high-level tennis. But not for everyone.

The most renowned international academies now display prices ranging from €50,000 to €90,000 per season, an unimaginable sum for the vast majority of families of promising players.

Examples include IMG Academy (around €70,000/year and €90,000/year with the boarding option) and the Evert Tennis Academy (over €50,000/year with boarding) in the United States, as well as the Rafa Nadal Academy (around €56,000/year) and the Mouratoglou Academy (around €40,000/year) in Europe.

Moreover, with travel, the annual budget can exceed €75,000 and even approach €100,000.

An environment "impossible to replicate" elsewhere

For those who can afford it, these structures deliver a package that seems tailored to create the champions of tomorrow:

- a meticulously planned international schedule,

- highly experienced and ranked sparring partners,

- complete multidisciplinary teams,

- total immersion in the life of the circuit.

A world apart, shaped to accelerate sporting maturity and widen the gap with those who remain outside the system.

Two worlds that hardly speak to each other anymore

But the divide is widening. On one side, talent identification remains largely handled by federations, always in search of the raw gem.

On the other, elite training now belongs to private academies, which attract talents capable of financing their progression.

And even though access to scholarships is possible, the path to the top level is turning into a VIP corridor: without access to a premium structure, even highly gifted players struggle to rise to the world level.

For example, Holger Rune benefited from the ChampSeed foundation, founded by Patrick Mouratoglou, to be able to train within the academy.

Talent or money? The new equation of high-level tennis

In this new configuration, one observation stands out bluntly: talent is no longer enough.

Funding, network, the ability to integrate into a private ecosystem have become determining factors for a professional career.

This is one of the great silent revolutions of modern tennis: the future of young champions is now played out as much on the court as in the bank account.

Find the full investigation on Tennis Temple this weekend

"Training future champions: focus on the decline of the French public model in the face of private academies," available this weekend (December 6-7).