Patrick Mouratoglou urges tennis governing bodies to help lower-ranked professionals

Coach Patrick Mouratoglou has urged the major tennis governing bodies to help lower-ranked players during the Tour suspension. 

Last week, the ATP, WTA and ITF extended the suspension of the tours  until at least July 13 due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

Several high-ranked players have publicly said they will be OK during the Tour suspension but added that they fear for those lower-ranked professionals. 

"Our sport is great. Yet, the challenging period we are facing only emphasizes how dysfunctional it is," Mouratoglou said in a letter he wrote to the major tennis governing bodies. 

"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. 

"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 staffs, while their own salaries depend on the number of matches they win. It is a meritocracy-based system -- which is perfectly fine to me. Top players 100 percent deserve their earnings. 

"However, 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. 

"Per former top-10 player Tim Mayotte, 'you would have to make about $200,000 a year from prize money and/or endorsements to make a living wage.'

"Per current world No. 225 Noah Rubin, 'for somebody outside the top-50 or 100, you don't have many sponsorships off court, and if you do it's minor, you can't live off them. If you don't work, you don't get paid.'

"So, what happens when players are forced out of work for an undefined period of time? Well they don't get paid. 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.

"Last year's ITF reform, which fortunately was cancelled just months after being passed, made the situation of those players ranked outside the top-100 almost impossible to handle. Many of them decided to give up tennis simply because there wasn't any other option. 

"Currently they are going through a new challenge: Because the Tour is on suspension for the reasons we all know, those 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.

"For this reason, I would love to see the ATP, the WTA, the ITF and the Grand Slams sit together (albeit virtually) to try and find a sustainable solution. We all rely on those governing bodies, who have the power to protect the professional tennis economy and hold social responsibility. 

"I would those institutions to say STOP. We can't leave lower-ranked players behind anymore. This isn't right. Tennis needs change. Let's use this free time to start a discussion."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3c5FjvT