ATP Tour

How ATP's Baseline programme underpinned Jesper de Jong's breakout 2025 season

The life of a professional tennis player is full of stress: Match-day pressure, last-minute travel arrangements and, for many outside the Top 100, financial uncertainty.

Dutchman Jesper de Jong knows that better than most. The 25-year-old earned his first ATP point in 2019 and still had not cracked the Top 100 of the PIF ATP Rankings at the end of the 2024 season, when he finished No. 112 with just two career tour-level match wins to his name.

Limited resources meant that he could not make key investments to fast-track his development.

But a $200,000 advance payment at the beginning of the 2025 season courtesy of the ATP's pioneering Baseline Programme enabled De Jong to execute plans that contributed to a breakout season that returned 17 wins and a year-end ranking of No. 73.

He earned more than $780,000, setting him on a path of financial independence.

"Going into a season there is no guarantee that you're going to earn a certain amount of money, which makes it difficult to make the investments that give you the best chance of succeeding," De Jong said of the Baseline Programme, for which he qualified under the Newcomer Investment pillar. "With Newcomer you get the $200,00 and then you can plan how you're going to spread it out through the season.

"That brings a sense of calm. Without the assistance, you might plan to spend that on coaches but then you get injured and you can't keep that commitment."

Newcomer Investment is available to players who break into the Year-End Top 125 for the first time the season prior. In 2025, De Jong was one of five players to benefit from the initiative.

De Jong used the Newcomer Investment to travel a full season for the first time with fitness coach Bas van Bentum (who previously worked with Tallon Griekspoor). It also allowed him to add coach Thiemo De Bakker to his team. The former World No. 40 travelled 15 weeks with De Jong.

Eligible and participating players like De Jong return up to the full $200,000 amount, which from 2026 is given as a three-year loan. Players hand back 50 per cent of prize money from ATP tournaments [not Grand Slams] and by performing off-court services.

For De Jong, the programme was a game changer, allowing him to keep his commitment with Van Bentum and De Bakker, even after a slow start to the season.

"Last year in January I didn't win a match and I had the big expense of going to Australia. So to have the Newcomer was a big sigh of relief. Your full year [of expected costs] is covered by the ATP,” De Jong said.

"I've spoken to other players and everyone is loving it. I had a good season last year and made some good money, but other guys didn't have their best year and didn't earn a lot. So Newcomer was a very big deal for them."

Newcomer Investment is one of three pillars of ATP’s Baseline initiative, which aims to create further financial support outside of on-court earnings so players can make a sustainable living from the sport. This is the second year of a three-year trial.

In 2025, the programme benefitted 30 eligible players to the tune of $2 million, up from the $1.3 million split among 26 players in 2024.

The Minimum Guarantee pillar guarantees minimum income levels for Top 250 players. ATP covers any shortfall to ensure players 1-100 earn a minimum of $300,000, players 101-175 earn $200,000 or more and players 176-250 earn no less than $100,000. In 2025, 24 players benefitted.

The Income Protection guarantee pillar supports players returning to the Tour after injury setbacks.

At last year's Australian Open, De Jong crashed out in the first round of qualifying. With his ranking now at No. 73 - just two spots off his career high - he finds himself in the main draw, where he will face former World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.

He's looking forward to the challenge of playing one of the game's elite players following his matches with Top 10 stars Jannik Sinner [Rome] and Alexander Zverev [Roland Garros] last year.

"For your chances of winning you don’t want to draw a top player like Medvedev, but at the same time it’s an opportunity to go up against one of the biggest names in the sport,” De Jong said.

"With Sinner last year he was coming back in Rome, so it was like me going into the lion's den. It was very tough but playing against him in that stadium was something I enjoyed a lot. I played a very good match, I felt.

"Against Zverev, I'd come back from two sets down in the first round and I came out and played a great first set, which I won. But he killed me physically in the end and won in four."