Serena Williams is one of the most decorated and rewarded female athletes in history. The American sensation has also started an array of businesses using her image selling all sorts of products… and dreams. Therefore, Serena has no problems at all with her finances also now that the tennis activities have been stopped by the Coronavirus pandemic.
However, the tennis icon doesn’t turn her back to the so-called lower-ranked players that are known to struggle financially. Their situation has been deteriorating rapidly during the last couple of months since they are currently earning no money with the tennis tours stopped. Novak Djokovic has been promoting a Player Relief Fund to help these athletes. However, the fund sparked controversy among some top names such as Dominic Thiem that are against the initiative maintaining that not all lower-ranked players are putting the right effort.
Talking with Aryeh Bourkoff on the KindredCast podcast, Serena expressed her concern for lower-ranked players adding that this can be a key moment for tennis to think how to help these athletes that at the end of the day are part of the show.
“I am just as curious as everyone, and the sport has been really affected. We have people out here in our sport that live to play tennis. So they currently don’t have an income because if they’re not playing and getting paid to go to these tournaments. They don’t have an income so it’s kind of really scary for a lot of players.
I’ve been playing for well over two decades. So I’m in a different position but if you just started out it’s not a great place to be in. It’s a lot of things that bring a lot of questions now what’s going to happen or this could happen again or those players prep for it. So how do you make things better for the players who inevitably are the content that tennis has,” she commented.
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Serena Williams in 2020
Ranked world no.9, Serena played her last match on the 8th of February when she was overcome by Anastasija Sevastova 7-65 3-6 7-64 in the Rubber 4 of the Fed Cup.
At present, this year Serena Williams has a 8-2 win-loss record. Serena conquered 1 title in Auckland.
