Last week, nearly every elite men's tennis player skipped one of London's marquee tournaments. Only one of the world's top 10 showed up at Queen's Club, the traditional Wimbledon warmup; stars including Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, and Ben Shelton were playing 300 miles away in Halle, Germany. A culprit was likely Britain's tax code, which doesn't stop at taxing prize money earned on British soil.
It also taxes a slice of a player's global endorsement income, prorated by how many days of the year they happen to spend in the U.K. Fail to advance far enough in the tournament, and the tax bill on your sponsorship deals can exceed your payout. So, the players who get to choose where they compete are now choosing somewhere else.
