Low Pay Leads Tour Tennis Pros From Forehands to Finance

While Andy Murray aims for a second U.S. Open tennis title, his friend and former Davis Cup teammate Jamie Baker is forging a career in London’s financial district.

Baker swapped his racket for a job at Banco Santander SA, Spain’s largest bank, in 2013 after spending years scraping by as a traveling professional. Baker, a former British No. 2 who grew up in Scotland playing alongside 2012 U.S. Open and 2013 Wimbledon champion Murray, isn’t alone. With a lack of prize money in the lower ranks and the annual cost of playing professional tennis at $143,000, according to a 2010 study by the U.S. Tennis Association, some former players end up on Wall Street or in the City of London while still in their 20s.