Max Eisenbud joins 'Served with Andy Roddick' for a crash course in 'finances, money and tennis'

Andy Roddick is clear from the early minutes of the latest episode of the "Served with Andy Roddick" podcast that it will be a crash course on the financial realities a tennis player’s career, from a young age where the parents notice that a serious investment could be in order, to a newly-turned professional looking for support as they climb the rankings.

Best known for working with Maria Sharapova, Max Eisenbud joins the podcast to deliver the knowledge he's gained over his more than 20 years of experience in the industry.

“We're constantly trying to solve this puzzle of this expensive sport,” Eisenbud said. “If you don't have a federation that necessarily has a Grand Slam, has amazing funding, you're on your own. Before you know it, you need $100,000 easily a year.”

Players can start small, speaking one-on-one with wealthy businessmen in their cities for investments, but as travel expenses, coaches, and fees add up, a neighborly $5,000 investment is eaten away at very quickly.

“It’s a very niche world that these tennis players live in, and they've got to have really good accountants, and tax people, and financial people, that understand the tax treaties and everything they're doing, so I do believe it is our responsibility as the agent that first contacted the player as they come up to be introducing them to these people to these experts in the space,” Eisenbud said.

More times than not, juniors aren’t the ones leading the financial roundtable discussions and speaking to brands about partnerships. So, it’s not only about players needing money, but parents making the right deals with investors.

Read More: Tiger Woods inspired Maria Sharapova’s brand strategy, reveals agent Max Eisenbud on Andy Roddick’s "Served" podcast

“The first thing we're doing is putting the funding together, but it's certainly not enough money to make it all work,” Eisenbud said. “You have to go to the clothing companies and the racquet companies and say, 'Hey, this is a great young player. Can you do a deal now?'

"What we do is we waive all of our commission on all the deals we do for our young players. They need that money; we don't need a percentage of that money to keep our lights on. That's one of the benefits of us: All the money that we negotiate on a racquet deal, a clothing deal, all go to the player; we don't we don't touch any of that.”

Roddick notes that even a player's scheduling comes down to how much presence at a tournament is worth to brand partners.

“You're making a decision as a player and you don't really care whether you go to Halle or Queen's Club—maybe that doesn't matter as much to you—but then you look at time spent in a certain place," he said. "If I play Queen's Club, I spend three or four more weeks in London than I normally would. What is that worth on a clothing contract?"

The show's other weekly voice, journalist Jon Wertheim, joins for the second half of the episode to continue the discussions with Roddick in terms of the former world No. 1’s own experiences.

Tune into the episode Sunday night on T2, Tennis Channel’s second network, and stream everywhere Tuesday across all Served media channels.