Darren Cahill: 99 percent of the coaches are not getting paid right now

Australian tennis coach Darren Cahill says that most of the tennis coaches in the system right now are not getting paid due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spekaing to the Tennis Majors website, Cahill, who currently coaches World No. 2 Simona Halep and has earlier worked with Llleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi, says, “99 percent of the coaches at the moment are not getting paid. And it’s just like the players as well: unless you’re one of the top players and have contract money, they’re not getting paid either. So being a coach on the WTA or the ATP at the moment is incredibly difficult. For the moment, the coach is not protected at all.”

Some coaches like Sam Sumyk and Thomas Drouet are in favour of a union to support the coaches right now. Sumyk says, “A change of system should have happened a long time ago already. There should be a common force in our profession, perhaps we would call it a union or a platform, which would defend our interests and provide us with some security.”

Cahill also supports the idea of creating something to help the coaches. “It’s going to be important to get together and put some things in place that are going to help in the future. It could be standardizing contracts, it could be a termination clause. There has to be some security that gives the coaches on both tours the ability to be a little bit protected. Even buying into the players’ insurance as well, which would help a lot of us when we travel.”

Wim Fissette, who is currently working with Naomi Osaka, says that it is a tough time for several coaches right now. "Financially, it could become awfully rough for a lot of coaches. I’ve had contracts where I was paid on a daily base, on a weekly base, on a monthly base or for the year. Most of the coaches have contracts by days or weeks. A lot of them will be out of a job.”

Drouet, who currently works with Chinese Top 30 player Wang Qiang, says he is also not getting paid due to the current shutdown by Qiang. He said he would start working with Wang six weeks prior to the tennis resumption and was relying on his savings to get through the period right now.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/35vKwva