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From College Tennis to the Pro Tour:
The Hidden Challenges Behind a Growing Pathway
By: Peter Makk
Video: xat-ch/pixabay
To some, it’s a quick flash; to most, it’s a long-lasting darkness.
Ben Shelton took the tennis world by storm in 2023, reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals, making him the first men’s NCAA singles champion in over a decade to do so. This was his second-ever Grand Slam, and his first trip outside the United States. In the same tournament this year, 19 players with college ties competed – a record high amongst the men and a sign that the pathway from college to pro tennis is not just possible, but thriving.
This rise is no doubt caused by a shift that started three years ago with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) launching the Accelerator Program, which gives top college players direct access to Challenger tournaments and a faster route to the pro tour.
It helped young talents like Ethan Quinn (former University of Georgia player) climb the rankings into the Top 115.
Ben Shelton said in an interview: “College tennis is a great step to becoming a professional. You learn about playing for something bigger than yourself. I think it’s great that the top college tennis players will now have an opportunity when their season ends to jump into the pro game. To give players that are Top 10, Top 20 in the nation, opportunities to make big jumps quickly is really cool.”
Timothy Russell, the ITA Chief Executive Officer said: “College tennis is the connective tissue in the global tennis eco-system, an aspirational goal for junior tennis players around the world and a proven educational environment and competitive high performance arena in preparation for success in life, including as a career as a top professional tennis player (ATP Tour)
But for every Ben Shelton and Ethan Quinn, there are dozens of more players struggling in the shadows. The transition from college to pro tennis often comes with untold financial hardship, relentless pressure, and a growing mental health crisis that the sport is only beginning to acknowledge.
The Accelerator Program was designed to leap from college to pro easier, but the pressure to perform, the financial risks, and the emotional toll are higher than ever.
Tennis stars like Andrey Rublev broke the illusion of success and revealed that depression and self-harm incidents can be linked to the pressures of the tour. During the 2025 Indian Wells tournament, he was seen mistreating his tennis racket.
This story will uncover the reality behind the headlines: the hidden costs and the urgent need for reform in the new college-to-pro tennis pathways.
Changing the Stereotypes about College
There was a record-breaking number of collegiate players at the 2025 Australian Open, with 23 men’s players in the qualifying and 19 players in the main draw. This shows a significant rising trend.
For decades, people said, “College tennis is a waste of time”, “you will not improve.” The players that made it after to the tour were just a few exceptions, and not the norm. College tennis was seen as a “plan B” for players that are lacking pro potentials.
The turning point came in 2023, when the ATP-ITA partnership formalized college tennis as a developmental pathway that would help make the mental toll of transition easier (atptour).
Players ranked in the Top 20 of the ITA final singles rankings at the end of the season are going to be granted up to eight Accelerator Spots at Challenger 50 and 75 tournaments. Top 10 on the rankings get 6-8 direct acceptance to Main Draw, between 11-20, players receive 6-8 entries into the Qualifying of the tournament.
I asked Zsombor Velcz, a current student-athlete at Baylor University, and Steve Johnson, who was a college tennis player before reaching his career high of 21 on the world rankings.
Click on the tennis balls below to read more about what they think of the Program.
Zsombor Velcz: "Yeah, I mean that that program, while the NCAA or ITA made up the top, if you're on top 20, they're going to have, they’re going to help you with the wild cards for challenger tournaments, which is one level up than than the future circuit, which would be like a big help, I would say, for everyone, especially after four years, you decided to try to go pro, and you have no rankings, but you have that benefit that you were talking to me in the country, and you get these wild cards."
Steve Johnson: "I think the accelerator program is really good. I've watched that in play the last like couple years, watching guys get wild cards and do this and do this and do that from the college level. And I will always be a proponent of that, because this is the path that I came and I'm I think it is a very good path for people to go on."
The ATP Accelerator Program is a structured gateway for these leading college players, which gives them immediate access to the Challenger tournaments. This takes away some of the uncertainty for players when they begin competing on the tour, helping ease their tension.
Accelerator Program and it’s double edged sword
Whoever made the quarterfinals in the NCAA championships last year automatically gets into the Accelerator Program. What do the players who are fighting for the rest of the spots feel like? Lots of pressure to produce results.
For players like Filip Planinsek, who was the 2024 NCAA champion, it’s a lifeline. For others, it’s a lot of added pressure.
I interviewed with a former college and professional tennis player, Dominik Kellovsky, who played Planinsek just a couple of months ago.
“It’s nice to be getting wild cards to challengers, but we could have seen Filip Planinsek, who had this tournament’s wild cards, but he had a tough draw, and he didn’t make any points out of it,” Kellovsky said. “Did this help actually help him? I think focusing on the level of your tennis, instead of focusing, you know, on points or rankings. I think it can bring you a little bit of, you know, a little bit of anxiety in the crucial moments.”
Most players’ goal is to turn professional after college. This Program is a way to jumpstart their career, which can lead to performance anxiety. Maybe this is their only chance to continue after school. They might not be able to start from zero because of financial hardships.
This safety net would allow these athletes to improve their games without the financial burden of self-funding a pro career from zero, which costs anywhere between 30k to 200k, or even more depending on personal choices. If one gets into the Accelerator Program, on the Challenger events, the hotel and food are paid for, which removes additional stress.
“When I was playing pro, I had to, like, stay motivated,” Zsombor Velcz, a current player at Baylor University, said. “I was in the Federation, and if I not completing a certain goal, what was the Federation telling me for my age, they’re not gonna like support me for next year. So it was always that I had that pressure in the back of my mind.”
According to the International Tennis Federation, the average ranking to break even on the men’s circuit is No. 330 in North America (Sigruntennis). Something many never reach.
Systemic Gaps
Financial disparities are the biggest problems. While Ben Shelton earned $2.2 million in 2023 (thesportsrush), the median income for players that year was $22,000. The amount barely covers costs or not at all in some cases.
Some players end up choosing college because of financial hardships. Kellovsky opened up about his struggles. He made it to the top 500 in the world at the age of 20.
“I mean, the main thing was the financial situation. I think that financially, my father was struggling. I think he gave so much back then. And, yeah, maybe, I would have been able to find a sponsor back then, but I just didn’t have the resources, and I didn’t know who I should ask, so for me, this was not an option,” Kellovsky said.
Hover over the following map, which shows what it costs to play a lowest-level professional tournament. Kellovsky, based out of Prague, Czech Republic, will be the example for the price estimates.
It is visible on the map that even in nearby countries, players risk losing money week by week if they lose early in the tournament. Something quite common. With moderate success, earnings barely offset costs.
The reason for this is the low prize money on the lower-level tournaments. Those players don’t generate as much revenue, therefore, there is less money involved. This is why college tennis is a great fallback for some players, and they can take advantage of it.
There are success stories like Steve Johnson’s. He signed multiple deals after a legendary career.
“Luckily for me, I signed a couple of really good deals with Babolat and ASICS right when I finished college. So financially, I felt very safe that I could travel, have a coach, not worry week in and week out, about making money, about how I’m going to get to the next week. So that was very fortunate on my behalf, which took a lot of stress out.“
Video
Mental Health Crisis amongst pro players
One of the best players in the game, Andrey Rublev, showed signs of a systemic issue just last year (Tennis-Infinity). While Rublev has talked about mental health before, the scale of his issues was not known until the 2024 Madrid Open (The Guardian).
Short clip from the New York Post Sports.
Behind every record-breaking run and every rising star, there’s a hidden struggle, mental health challenges that often go unspoken in professional tennis. While some players like Andrey Rublev bravely shed light on their battles, many others quietly face anxiety, burnout, and even despair, especially those just starting their careers after college.
I asked about the stories of players and experts to get a better understanding of how the transition from college can be a turning point, not just physically but psychologically.
What could be done in the future?
Universal Tennis (UTR), which is a pro tennis league started in 2020, came up with a whole new way of professional tennis. Guaranteed matches with prize money are much better than the lower-level normal pro events.
UTR announced the next wave of growth with a Pro Summer Slam that will reward $450,000 in prize money. It will be held at top-notch universities across the country, from mid-May through September.
This shows the dedication of this company, and if they can keep innovating, the future might be brighter for more and more players.
There are efforts to help tennis players that are starting on the pro tour, but the ATP world tour needs a bigger reforms. This could include Mental health stipends, coaches for the transitional phase, or revenue-sharing from tournaments to lower-ranked players.
In 2021, the US Open offered tennis players access to mental health professionals during the 2-week event.
“Our goal is to make mental health services as readily available to athletes as services for a sprained ankle, and with no stigma attached. We will provide an environment that fosters wellness while providing the necessary resources to readily allow mental health care seeking.” (HuffPost) Dr. Brian Hainline, USTA’s first vice president.
Efforts like this were made for the best players of the game. Meanwhile, someone who is battling in the lower-level tournaments will be left alone without resources. Thomas Singleton shared his ideas about low-cost mental health:
“It’s a big issue in sports psychology, a lot of the times, in order to work with a sports psychologist or a mental coach, you know, the fees to work with them are very high, and, this is definitely an issue that I am well aware of and looking to help try to fix,” Singleton said in an interview.
He gave me two cost-effective options to help with mental health. Hover over the tennis balls to read more.
"So, one thing that I'm trying to do is develop low cost resources that any athlete can use for a low amount of money. The first like low cost resource that that I am developing, and a lot of other people are developing, are books, like reading books that discuss the challenges that we're speaking about and potential solutions to them. One thing I've done is I've written a book about the mental game of tennis, and I basically give the tennis player in the book, like, eight mental strategies to help them improve their game, which ideally, in this question, will help them, you know, feel better from a mental health perspective. I think it's a great, you know, low cost resource.”
"The first like low cost resource that that I am developing, and a lot of other people are developing, are books, like reading books that discuss the challenges that we're speaking about and potential solutions to them. I've written a book about the mental game of tennis, and I basically give the tennis player in the book, like, eight mental strategies to help them improve their game, which ideally will help them, you know, feel better from a mental health perspective. I think it's a great, you know, low cost resource.”
"I’ll point to another. I mean, almost no cost resource that I'll often recommend to athletes, and is just very commonly recommended in in the field of sports psychology, is a journaling. Journaling is a great way to become more aware of what's happening in your mind, like journaling your thoughts, journaling your emotions. And the idea is, is when you get your thoughts and emotions out on paper, you kind of see that you know you aren't your thoughts, you aren't your emotions, an you can also maybe, once you get them out on paper, you can start to kind of brainstorm approaches for how to, you know, solve, maybe some of the challenges that you're trying to solve. So that’s another good one.”
"Almost no cost resource that I'll often recommend to athletes is a journaling. Journaling is a great way to become more aware of what's happening in your mind, like journaling your thoughts, your emotions. And the idea is, is when you get your thoughts and emotions out on paper, you kind of see that you know you aren't your thoughts, you aren't your emotions, and once you get them out on paper, you can start to brainstorm approaches for how to solve some of the challenges that you're trying to solve.”
The rise of college-to-pro pathways has reshaped tennis, but at significant emotional and financial costs. As awareness grows around athlete mental health and systemic issues in tennis, governing bodies must prioritize player well-being over rankings or revenue alone.