'A lot of players don't want to play right now' - says Shapovalov

Denis Shapovalov is currently having a great week at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships where he spoke about the increasing number of withdrawals.

For the Canadian, it has been a good week in Dubai as he will play against Harris for a spot in the final today. His season so far has been pretty good but speaking about the season in general he touched upon a controversial topic lately. Many players have been withdrawing from events and Denis thinks it is not going to change soon:

“I think for the bigger guys, it’s not really motivating [to play 500s and Masters]. They’ve been there, they’ve won Masters, they’ve won Slams, so they don’t have a reason to go and play.

When asked to clarify what he meant by that he simply said he is expecting more withdrawals in the future:

“I definitely think there’s going to be a lot of withdrawals and a lot of people not going to tournaments. I do agree the prize money is low, and it’s not motivating to play every week, and play all the big tournaments. There’s not really a lot in it for us other than the Slams at this point, that are paying just as much or better."

Shapovalov continued explaining that he believes not a lot of players want to play right now but because of sponsors and commitments, they continue to do so. He also expressed hope that things will get better soon:

Hopefully, the ATP or someone can do something to improve the prize money and bring it back to what it was. But it is what it is right now, you know. So we have other obligations from sponsors, contracts that obligate us to play as well. So for sure, that’s definitely one reason why a lot of players are still playing, because otherwise, I feel like a lot of players just don’t want to play at all.”