The coach of Serena Williams has said it is ‘revolting’ that players ranked outside the world’s top 100 have been left financially struggling due to the current suspension of the ATP, WTA and ITF Tours.
Patrick Mouratoglou has issued a statement in which he has called on the governing bodies of the sport to work together in order to find a solution to the current problem. All professional tennis tournaments have been suspended until at least July 13th due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike team sports, tennis players will receive no income during the suspension unless they receive money from sponsorship deals. Prompting some to explore other earning opportunities away from the sport.
The financial situation many on the tour are facing has been raised by Georgian player Sofia Shapatava. The world No.317 recently launched a change.org petition calling for support throughout the lockdown that has been signed by more than 1700 people.
“Players ranked outside the top 100 are barely breaking even and most of them are forced to fund their careers to keep playing professionally. Their lives are a financial struggle,’ Mouratoglou wrote in an open letter published on Twitter.
“Unlike basketball or football players, tennis players aren’t covered by fixed annual salaries. They’re independent contractors. They’re paying for their travels. They’re paying fixed salaries to their coaching staff, while their own salaries depend on the number of matches they win.
“I find it revolting that the 100th-best player of one of the most popular sports in the world – followed by an estimated one billion fans – is barely able to make a living out of it.”
Despite rises in prize money in recent years, there are still considerable difference in earnings between the top earners and those ranked much lower than them. So far this year four players on the WTA Tour have managed to earn more than $1 million in prize money. They are Sofia Kenin, Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep and Ash Barty. Overall, a total of 90 female players has won more than $100,000. However, the further down you go the most dire the situation is. The 150th highest earner of the season made $47,411 and the 300th earned $8420.
2020 WTA EARNERS
1 – Sofia Kenin USA $3,012,043
50 – Marketa Vondrousova CZE – $139,164
100 – Harriet Dart GBR – $92,505
150 – Oceane Dodin FRA – $47,411
200 Kurumi Nara JPA – $28,469
250 – Oksana Kalashnikova GEO – $18,216
300 – Talaba Gabriela ROM – $8,240
Note: players are ranked based on 2020 earnings only
Mouratoglou has warned that some players are now being forced to walk away from the sport due to a lack of funds. Saying the sport has ‘one of the most extreme levels of inequality’ when it comes to finance. This year world No.1 Novak Djokovic has won $4,486,616 in prize money already due to his 18-match winning start to the season where he won the ATP Cup, Australian Open and Dubai Tennis Championships. The equates to almost 18 times more than what the 50th highest earner of 2020 made (Ugo Humbert with $252,793).
“So, what happens when players are forced out of work for an undefined period of time? Well, they don’t get paid,” Mouratoglou wrote. “Some of them are giving up on their dreams and are calling it a career.
“It’s been the case for too long. Although we have done away with the long-established male supremacy in the financial field, tennis retains one of the most extreme levels of inequality in any sport.
“The thing is, tennis crucially needs them to survive. Tennis can’t live only off its elites. The tours would atrophy.
“Because the tour is on pause for the reasons we all know, these players do not get any income, and unlike most top-100 players, they do not have any money on the side or sponsorship deals to live on.
“It is time to think about those players and help them, first in the immediate future, then in the long-term.”
What is being done?
There is yet to be an announcement about what will be done to compensate players on the tour, but some national bodies have already launched their own aid packages. For example, last week the British LTA announced a £20 million package that includes providing grants to their players ranked outside the top 100 if they meet certain criteria.
The WTA, who is in charge of the women’s tour, are also currently in the process of evaluating what to do. Should tennis resume in 2020, potential ideas include expanding the calendar in order for players to play more tournaments and earn more. However, they admit their is a limit to what they can do.
“We wish there was a way everyone, especially those in need the most, could be compensated at the level they were expecting, but the needs are so great and the WTA unfortunately is not in a financial position to do that,” the WTA said in a statement issued to Reuters.
“Professional tennis players are independent contractors and not employees of the WTA. As a result, a player’s compensation is based on on-court competition and when tournaments are not held this puts a pause on their principal revenue flow.
“The WTA fully recognises the challenges these athletes are facing as well as those similar challenges being dealt with from millions of people around the world during this unprecedented situation.”
Meanwhile, ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi has reiterated that the governing bodies are working together to come up with a calendar for when the Tour resumes.
“We are currently assessing a number of revised calendars based on different return dates for the Tour, with the aim of rescheduling as many tournaments as possible,” Gaudenzi told The Associated Press.
“We are liaising closely with the other governing bodies with the common goal of trying to salvage as much of the season as possible once it is safe for the Tour to resume.”
