Novak Djokovic gave a thoughtful and lengthy response on the topic of prize money in Tennis after Nick Kyrgios argued players do not get paid as much as they should.
The Serbian founded the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), a players’ union, in 2020. Djokovic has explained one of the key purposes of the PTPA is to strive for fairer distribution of revenue and welfare in the sport.
“We talk so much about how much money the US Open winners make but we are not talking about how many players, both men and women, singles, doubles, all together, professionals live from this sport,” the tennis great said in 2023.
“It’s less than 400 [players] max for a sport that is super global and then it’s one of the most-watched sports on the planet. That’s poor. That’s a failure for our sport.”
Kyrgios, who partnered Djokovic in doubles at this week’s Brisbane International tournament, hit out at the schedule of the professional tour and labelled the share of revenue received by players as “a joke.”
“The tour is ridiculous compared to any other sport,” the Australian said in a press conference in Brisbane.
“It’s absurd, really, the amount of travel we do, considering we don’t even get paid what we are supposed to get paid, as well, which is a joke.
“It’s a tough sport, especially if you’re from Australia you don’t see your family and friends for six, seven, eight months.”
Novak Djokovic News
Novak Djokovic’s comments on Jannik Sinner drug scandal hit home more than Nick Kyrgios rant
The 5 men with the most ATP Tour quarter-finals: Novak Djokovic moves to joint-4th, Roger Federer 2nd
After his second round win over Gael Monfils in Brisbane, Djokovic was asked about Kyrgios’ comments and whether he thinks players are paid enough.
Here is everything the 24-time Grand Slam winner said:
-“I’m just going to state a fact. It’s not my opinion. The fact is that that’s true, what he’s saying. The pie split between the governing bodies in major sports, all major American sports, like NFL, NBA, baseball, NHL, is 50% maybe more, some less, but around 50%. Ours is way lower than that. It is true.
“Obviously it’s slightly – well, quite different sport because it’s international, played globally. We are under differ rules and regulations of different countries and legislations, taxes, et cetera, et cetera. Obviously each tournament is independently governing their own prize money split. Then you have ATP, WTA,
then obviously Grand Slams that are separate entities that can do whatever they like.
“It’s quite fragmented from that point of view. It’s not easy to get everybody in the same room and say, Okay, let’s agree on a certain percentage. The revenue share is quite different in Grand Slams and a 250 event, for example, which is quite different than the major American sports where it’s all under USA law and legislation.
“It’s different. You have a player union there. They can obviously under their regulations and laws negotiate the terms. It’s quite different with us. Actually was one of the reasons why PTPA was formed, to represent better players’ rights and voices, because I don’t think that’s been done to the level that is satisfactory with ATP and WTA over the years.
“I’ve been president of players council for quite a few years. I’ve been in the council almost 10 years. I know exactly how the system works. In the end of the day, unfortunately players don’t really make a decision on the big – how can I say – topics.
“When you look at the system, you’d say you have in the governing body of ATP on the board three player representatives, board representatives, three tournament board representatives, and now you have CEO and president. For most of the years you had the president who had the deciding vote, right?
“You would think that whatever players council decides, that the player board representatives would go on the board and vote for that. That hasn’t been the case always. We have problem there. We have a problem in the very – how can I say – structure of the ATP is that as players we only have the 50% of that organisation.
“There’s always – not always but a lot of times – there was conflict of interest between tournaments and players. We wanted different thing. We are part of the same system, and we can’t go without each other, but we are oftentimes in conflictual situations. We want more money, they maybe don’t want to give us
as much money when we talk about the prize money.
“There’s so many different layers of the prize money that you have to look into. It’s not that simple. In essence what Nick was talking about is true. If you see it from a kind of general overview of just the pure percentage that players are getting from the revenue share, is way lower than most of the other global sports, American sports particularly.”
READ NEXT: Novak Djokovic gets stunning vote of confidence as Grand Slam great makes Australian Open prediction
Related News :