John Isner calls Andrey Rublev earning less at Madrid compared to Novak Djokovic five years ago 'a complete joke'
ATP
Retired tennis player John Isner has taken issue with the fact that ATP star Andrey Rublev earned less for his 2024 Madrid Open victory that Novak Djokovic did during the Serbian's title run in 2019, as pointed out by a tennis journalist.
The Grand Slams and ATP Masters events are the most financially lucrative tournaments on the ATP Tour, with players earning prize money proportionate to their performance at these events. Rublev defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Madrid final, earning a huge sum for his ATP Masters victory.
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Renown tennis journalist Jon Wertheim recently pointed out the fact that the amount of money being earned by tennis players now is significantly less than it has been in the past. Wertheim pointed out the difference in the Madrid prize money won this year by Rublev and Djokovic in 2019, highlighting the significant drop.
"In 2019, @DjokerNole won the Madrid event and earned €1,202,520...The other day, Rublev won Madrid and earned €963,225....Yes, top players nobly agreed to reallocate prize money downward...But this is a considerable drop-off, esp. given the overall sports economy," wrote Wertheim on Twitter.
Isner was quick to react to this revelation, agreeing with Wertheim and stating the prize money situation in tennis was a joke.
"Thank you, Jon. It’s a complete joke," said Isner.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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