[career-builder]

Interesting article about Bobby Reynolds, the LA draw, and the ATP Pension program. I never knew how their pension program really worked, so I found this real interesting. In Bobby's case, a badly injured player is entering tournaments week after week primarily to work on getting into the ATP Pension plan someday.


Reynolds needs to immobilize his badly damaged left wrist for 6 weeks, but has changed his playing style to be able to play the last few weeks, solely to get to 10 ATP tournaments this year, and therefore get another qualifying year in the ATP pension plan.

Under the ATP plan, you have to play 10 main tour events in a calendar year (and Slams do not count, since they are ITF, not ATP) to get a qualifying year. You then have to have 5 qualifying years in order to get the pension. LA is Reynolds' 10th tourney for the year, and he now has 3 years in. And now he can leave the tour and get the medical treatment he needs.

He hasn't won a match since Miami. Yet he refused to exit the tour til he got in his 10 tourneys for the year. You can say, as the article points out, the guy is injured, and he prevented other healthy players from getting into draws. Or you can argue, as he does, that he earned the right to be in draws due to his ranking (he was #63 in February, a career high), and he earned the right to play the tourneys injured or not, to qualify for his pension year.

Here's the story

http://www.tennisreporters.net/reynolds072709.html