Written by Richard Pagliaro | @Itenisi_Manje | Friday, January 3, 2024
Photo credit: TennisTV
Novak Djokovic you know that tennis is a low-level business.
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The Serbian star is pro tennis’ all-time earnings leader earning more than $185 million during his illustrious career.
Asked for his analysis of Nick Kyrgios’ assertion that tennis players are “absurdly paid”, Djokovic fully supported Kyrgios’ claim.
Compared to other major sports, tennis players don’t get a fair slice of the sports pie, Djokovic said.
“I’ll tell the truth. It’s not my opinion,” Djokovic told reporters in Brisbane. “The truth is, that’s the truth, what [Kyrgios is] saying. The division of the pie between the dominant body in major sports, all major American sports, like NFL, NBA, baseball, NHL, 50% maybe more, some less, but almost 50%.
“Ours is lower than that. It’s true. It’s obviously a little bit – well, it’s a very different game because it’s international, played all over the world. We’re subject to different rules and regulations of different countries and laws, taxes, etc, etc. Obviously. each tournament independently controls the distribution of their prize money. Then you have the ATP, the WTA, and then obviously the Grand Slams are separate organizations that can do whatever they want. It’s very different in that sense.”
Former Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios called the player’s prize money “a joke” compared to other sports, especially given the fact that tennis is international.
“The tour is ridiculous compared to any other sport,” Kyrgios said. “It’s absurd, in fact, the amount of travel that we do, considering that we don’t even earn what we should earn, and, which is a joke.”
Djokovic, former President of the ATP Players Council, and Vasek Pospisil founded the Professional Tennis Players Association with the goal of giving professional players full representation in the decision-making process of the game.
In Brisbane, Djokovic reiterated his long-standing claim that the structure of the ATP board of directors is broken and does not adequately represent the interests of players.
“We really have a problem – how can I say it–The structure of the ATP is that as players we only have 50% of that organization,” said Djokovic. “There are many times when there is a conflict of opinion between the tournaments and the players. We wanted something different.
“We are part of the same system, and we cannot go out without one, but we often have conflicting situations.
“We want more money, maybe they don’t want to give us that much money when we talk about prize money. There are many layers of prize money that you have to look at. It’s not that easy.
“Actually, what Nick was talking about is true. If you look at the average pure percentage of the players’ income, it’s much lower than most other sports in the world, especially American sports.”
