As schools ponder cutting sports, tennis proves vulnerable

The promise of college tennis lured Abhimanyu Vannemreddy from his home in India to the United States, where he settled in at Winthrop University in South Carolina.

Now he’s pondering his future thousands of miles away from his family as financial reality crashes down on his sport.

Winthrop announced last month that both its men’s and women’s tennis programs will be dropped because of budget woes resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

Tennis has been hit hardest among college programs as athletic departments nationwide ponder cutting sports to save money.

"I was definitely caught by surprise,” Vannemreddy said.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates winning the men's singles in 2015. AP

"No prior warning or rumor about the program shutting down. It was just a random call one day and just found out it’s done.’’

Dozens of college tennis players across the country are in similar situations.

Men’s and women’s tennis are the only sports dropped by more than four Division I schools since the start of the pandemic, according to AP research.

East Carolina, Green Bay, Northern Colorado, Southern Utah and Wright State have dropped men’s and women’s tennis over the last three months.

In Arkansas, UAPB suspended men’s and women’s tennis for the year. Appalachian State cut men’s tennis, while Akron eliminated women’s tennis. Connecticut won't have a men’s tennis team after 2020-21.

Tim Cass, a former New Mexico and Texas A&M coach, now is general manager for the U.S. Tennis Association’s national campus in Florida. He believes colleges can help their programs by opening on-campus tennis facilities to their communities, by hosting junior or adult tournaments and offering after-school programs.

"If you’re doing that, more than likely your program has a very good chance of being safe,” Cass said.

A lack of quality facilities has contributed to some cuts.

Scholarship concerns also play a role.

The NCAA allows schools to offer up to 4 ½ scholarships in men’s tennis and eight in women’s tennis. Harrawood said that meant Winthrop’s tennis programs were generating a smaller percentage of tuition revenue than the school’s other Olympic-style sports.

An NCAA study found 63% of Division I men’s tennis players and 62% of Division I women’s tennis players in 2018 came from outside the United States. No other sport had the majority of its players come from outside the U.S., though men’s soccer had a slightly greater number of international athletes than men’s tennis.

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"If you’re a state school that gets state and public funding, and your team is 70% (international players), I think that makes your sport an obvious target,” said Gould.

Winthrop men’s coach John Collins wasn't so sure. He noted that Winthrop’s international players who weren’t receiving full scholarships actually generated more money for the university by paying out-of-state tuition fees.

"If we had more Americans from the Mountain region like Nevada, Utah, Arizona over the course of the last five to 10 years, then the support may have been better so maybe we’d have more donors, fundraising opportunities for facilities and maybe this wouldn’t have happened,’’ Southern Utah women’s coach Michael Mucci said. "But there are so many programs that got cut even with a ton of Americans, so I believe it really depends on the situation.’’

Winthrop didn’t have a single American player on its men’s or women’s rosters this year. The international players who remained in the U.S., like Vannemreddy, face a series of decisions.

He could give up college tennis and stay at Winthrop, which is honoring the financial aid packages it offered its tennis players. Or he could try to play elsewhere, knowing fewer roster spots are available with a surplus of players seeking new homes.

He can’t help but wonder about the risk of choosing a school that could cut its own program a year from now.

"That’s definitely something on my mind,’’ Vannemreddy said. "There’s so much uncertainty at these times. It’s basically a gamble, if I’m being honest.’’

Associated Press