“If you want to know where something’s headed, follow the money" - Andre Agassi tries to answer how the Golden swing can keep up with rival ATP tournaments

The Golden swing is currently going on in South America with some of the best talents from that area in the world competing for the goods and rewards from these coveted tournaments. As the tennis comes to a conclusion in the Rio Open, eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi has been closely observing the action, as he drew the comparisons to the tournament currently ongoing in other locations around the world.

The tournaments in Argentina, Brazil and Chile have been widely overlooked by many tennis players who have opted to compete in Europe and the Middle East. Money is a huge reasons for this with the tournaments in Argentina, Brazil and Chile just not able to get close to the financial heights being offered in such tournaments like the Qatar Open. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner headlined the action in Doha and were both paid a reportedly whopping $1.2 million just to turn up, not even including how much both players earn in the tournament itself.

There have been competitions competed in countries such as France, Netherlands, Qatar and USA since the conclusion of the Australian Open. A familiar trend has been seen and compared to the tournaments in South America: how full the stadiums are.

Despite the best two players in the world headlining the action in Qatar, the stands have not been full with events in North America featuring half empty crowds. Not even the stacked lineups could get more people to watch with event the ATP 250 events featuring numerous players from the top 20.

In the Rio Open, there are no players inside the top 50 who have reached the quarterfinal stage. This has not stopped the fans from coming out in their numbers, enthusiastically cheering on the players while selling out stadiums which has resulted in more tickets being sold in South America despite their setbacks.

Agassi has been keeping tabs on the action in Rio de Janeiro, acknowledging that money is starting to take over in the sport as he compares the players to 'corporations' and linked tennis to a 'big business.' “If you want to know where something’s headed, follow the money. Tennis has only grown,” he said.

“I don’t know if changing the surface answers every question,” Agassi firmly answered. The unique aspect about these events compared to others located around the world is that it is played on clay. This means players would have come off the Australian swing to play a few tournaments on clay just for them to adapt back to hard court ahead of the Sunshine swing.

But according to the American, the sirface attracts a lot of players over. “Changing surfaces could influence certain players’ decisions to come down here, because it’s a difficult transition to go from this environment straight to the American hard courts," he analysed. "It takes its toll. We saw it last year with Zverev, who came down here and then needed time to find his footing."

He explained the reasons for this. “It’s not easy to go from hard court to the heaviness of this environment. You can feel it in the air — the humidity, the density of the clay, the weight, the slowness — and then go back to hard courts. It’s not easy on the body, not easy on the mind, not easy with the travel. There are so many factors players have to consider.”

The way the tournaments can keep up with these other events is continuous improvement and pumping money into bossting up the facilities and making them bigger. Agassi passionately encouraged this as it would hugely benefit the sport.

“I like to see the game grow. I like seeing expansions. I like seeing facilities improve. I like seeing new countries get involved. I like seeing competition and the sport benefit from all of that."

Francisco Cerundolo kicked off the Golden swing with a title on home soil, defeating Luciano Darderi in the Argentina Open. The field has been blown wide open in the Rio Open, with the ATP 500 tournament delivering for some of the lower ranked players. Tomas Martin Etcheverry is the highest ranked player left. The eighth seed and world number 51 is set to take on Vit Kopriva in the first semi-final with Alejandro Tabilo and Ignacio Buse closely following.