Despite its roots as a recreational pursuit of the elite, modern-day tennis is about as close to a meritocracy as you’ll find in professional sports.
Whether it’s Wimbledon or the lowest-rung tournament in tennis’ minor leagues, there aren’t any shortcuts to getting in. You qualify based on accomplishment. You can only advance to the next level by winning. You eat what you kill. You get what you deserve. And you are what your ranking says you are.
Unless, of course, you’re billionaire hedge fund guy Bill Ackman.
On Wednesday afternoon, the 59-year old founder of Pershing Square Capital Management will suit up at the Hall of Fame Open in Newport, Rhode Island, indulging his sports fantasy while making a mockery of the tournament and the ATP Challenger Tour where players strive to eke out a living.
‘I am playing the best tennis of my life,’ Ackman wrote last week on X, where he posts frequently about politics and is often far-too-eager to embrace ridiculous conspiracy theories.
Including the idea that he belongs in a pro tennis event.
Ackman’s enthusiasm for tennis is indisputable. He’s a bit of a gadfly on tour, befriending several players and helping bankroll the Professional Tennis Players Association when it was launched in 2019 by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil. He says he practices nearly every day, seems to be in good shape for a 59-year old and, because of his access to top players, has found himself on the other side of the net from all-time greats like Roger Federer in informal hitting sessions.
And still, there is no deeper story to what’s happening in Newport this week other than exactly what it looks like: A wealthy tennis benefactor who started playing seriously a decade ago using his privilege to say he competed in a pro tour event. We can be honest about how gross that is – both in Ackman’s desire to make it happen and the ATP’s willingness to humor him.
How did it happen?
According to Ackman’s social media posts, former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios had proposed playing doubles together at one point, but ongoing injury issues delayed their partnership indefinitely.
‘Fortunately fate intervened,’ Ackman wrote.
Of course, it’s not fate. It’s simply the privilege of being Bill Ackman. Let’s explain.
Even though entrants for every tournament on the ATP or Challenger Tour level must meet a rankings threshold or earn a spot through a qualifying event, every tournament reserves a handful of wildcards that can be given out at its discretion.
The wildcard system isn’t perfect and sometimes creates controversy, but in general they’re used for reasonable purposes: An accomplished player who lost their ranking due to injury and is trying to come back, an up-and-coming star with local ties, a highly-ranked player who didn’t enter initially but decided to play at the last minute.
The Newport event, which was downgraded from ATP-level to a Challenger tournament this year, gave the wildcard in doubles to Jack Sock on the basis of being a former champion of the tournament and one of the most accomplished doubles players of the last decade.
There’s just one little issue: Sock, 32, is a pickleball player and podcaster now. His last professional tennis match was at the U.S. Open in 2023, and there is no indication that he’s planning a comeback. Also interesting: In an interview with Front Office Sports last week, Ackman said he had never even met Sock but that they were going to begin practicing together last weekend.
So Sock – out of the blue, apparently – requested a wildcard from Newport even though his tennis career has long been over. The tournament granted it, and Sock listed Ackman as his doubles partner. Which, again, the tournament allowed even though you can’t find results on Ackman in any of the public tennis databases kept by the USTA or Universal Tennis Rating (UTR).
Why was Ackman approved to compete? One truly wonders – unless, of course, you know how the world works.
But that’s not how tennis is supposed to work.
Look, it’s not the end of the world. While technically the Ackman-Sock wildcard could have gone to a legitimate team that needed the opportunity rather than a sideshow, nobody’s career is going to hinge on missing the cut for the doubles draw at the Newport Challenger.
But this isn’t a golf pro-am. It’s the real thing. And as long as we have pro sports, you’d like them to be played by professionals and not exist for the whims of potential benefactors who have a ton of money and a delusion about how good they are at playing tennis.
It’s a bad look, and it certainly doesn’t help the image of a sport that does not necessarily deserve its country club reputation. While some top-ranked players came from privilege, it’s not really that different from most other sports. The top two men’s players, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, both emerged from middle class backgrounds. Djokovic grew up flat-out poor in a war-torn country. Coco Gauff started on the public courts in Delray Beach, Florida, inspired by Serena and Venus Williams’ rise from Compton, California, to the top of the sport. And even for those who had advantages like Jessica Pegula, whose parents own the Buffalo Bills, there’s no faking it in tennis.
You have to win the right matches to establish your ranking, which gets you in the right tournaments, which only allows you to maintain that privilege if you keep winning.
You can’t use your social media fame or friendships or wealth to buy your way onto the pro tour.
Unless, apparently, you’re Bill Ackman.
This post appeared first on USA TODAY
