The South African Wayne Ferrera, former top 10 player with great experience, mantains that players have to boycott ATP, not slams because of the prize money issue.
Prize Money Controversy
This controversy comes from the fact that Slams do not give a fair share of their income to their players. So there have been some hints that top players could have boycotted some majors like the 2013 Australian Open (fortunately this is not going to happen).
A strange situation is also emerging as minor ATP tournaments are luring top players to participate by giving them handsome participation fees. (see Kremlin Cup, Vina del Mar and the controversy around Basel)
Ferrera
Wayne doesn’t really love ATP to have tried to found a breakaway tennis players’ association in 2003 to comment.
“You must boycott the ATP since its prize money has not grow for years while the Slams grow every year. When I stopped, a Grand Slam champion won $800,000-$900,000, and now he earns $2 million. The first round was paying $10,000; today, $25,000-$30,000. The amount of money the ATP 500 and 250s and Masters 1000’s pay are basically the same.”
So the Slams are making more money while the players are not… uhm… yes time to give a fair share to the “workers”
Something about Wayne
