Former world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt has become the latest high profile figure to voice his concerns over an initiative urging top tennis players to donate money to a fund helping those ranked lower than them.
The Australian tennis legend said the proposals set out by Novak Djokovic was a ‘touchy subject’ for him as he questioned the fairness of it. Djokovic, who is the president of the ATP Player Council, recently sent out a letter outlining how funding to those affected during the current tour suspension would be raised. In part of the proposal, he has asked the top 100 singles and top 20 doubles players to make a contribution towards the fund. Should they all get on board, more than $1 million would be raised.
However, not everybody supports the idea. World No.3 Dominic Thiem has come out against the move by arguing that he doesn’t want to donate to some players who are not fully committed to the sport. A relief fund is being set up to help those ranked between 250-700 who are unable to make an earning at present due to the pandemic.Thiem’s view has now been backed by Hewitt.
“This has been taken out of proportion. I know Dominic well and he was basically saying ‘well, I have no problem giving money to certain organisations that really need it at the moment,‘ Hewitt told World Wide of Sport.
“He had a problem with some of the lesser ranked tennis players that day in and day out aren’t giving 100% of themselves to the sport to maximise their potential.”
Elaborating further, the Australian Davis Cup captain believes there is also a flaw to Djokovic’s plan when it comes to asking for a donation from those in the bottom part of the top 100. Highlighting the case of James Duckworth.
“I look at someone who’s worked extremely hard like James Duckworth,” Hewitt said.
“In the last few years he’s done everything right to give himself the best opportunity to get himself back in the top 100.
“He’s making no money right now, he’s running at a loss, yet the ATP wants him to potentially donate five or ten thousand dollars to players ranked just outside 100.
“I don’t think that sits well, I don’t think it’s going to get over the line with a lot of those lesser players.”
28-year-old Duckworth is currently ranked 83rd in the world. Under the proposal, he would be asked to donate $5000. This would equate to roughly 4% of what he has made so far in 2020 ($121,317) on the singles Tour. In comparison Djokovic would donate $30,000, which is 0.7% of his yearly earnings ($4,410,541). These figures doesn’t take into account costs such as travel, equipment, accommodation and paying members of their teams.
In their careers overall, Duckworth has made $1.6 million compared to Djokovic’s record tally of $132 million.
Joining in on the debate, former top 60 player Sam Groth believes a fairer way to solve the ongoing crises would be to distribute the amount of prize money at tournaments on a more even basis. It has already been discussed that the prize money pool at the season-ending ATP Finals would be cut and invested into the relief fund if the tournament goes ahead. Although there is yet to be any formal plan in place.
“It’s hard isn’t it because you’ve worked hard to be one of those top guys and they make a lot more,” Groth said to Hewitt.
“I also think the prize money isn’t distributed evenly enough. You look at a guy like Novak Djokovic winning the Australian Open, you’re talking $4-5 million for winning a final in a grand slam.
“If you were to go and take $500,000 off the men’s and women’s purse from that winners’ purse and distribute it, there’s all of a sudden $8 million a year, or $4 million a year, depending on how much you take and where you take it from.”
All professional tennis tournaments have been suspended until at least July 13th.
