The big three, Nadal, Federer and through men’s world No 1, Novak Djokovic, last week urged players to contribute to a fund set up by the sport’s major governing bodies, in order to help players affected by a shutdown which began in March.
But in a distaste to the proposal, Dominic Thiem has completely rejected the idea that the world’s top tennis players should be part with their money to help lower-ranked competitors who are struggling financially.
“No tennis player is fighting to survive, even those who are much lower-ranked. None of them are going to starve,” Thiem told Austrian newspaper Krone. “I don’t really see why I should give such players money,” he added. “I would rather give money to people or organisations that really need it.”
“There are many, many players who don’t put the sport above everything else and don’t live in a professional manner,” the 26-year-old said. “None of us top players got anything handed to us, we all had to fight our way up. I don’t have the guarantee in any job that I will do well and earn lots of money.”
But in another kettle of fish, the world no 2 ATP ranked player Rafael Nadal, has said he does not expect tennis to return to normality any time soon.
“From my point of view, I’m very pessimistic that the circuit can resume normal activity,” Nadal said in an online Q&A organised by the Spanish tennis federation.
“In tennis, you need to travel every week, stay in hotels, go to different countries,” he added. “Even if we play without an audience, to organise any event you need a lot of people involved. At an international level I see a serious problem”, he added.
