"People don’t realize how expensive this sport is": Djokovic wants to see changes at lower level of sport and more help given to lower-ranked players

World number one Serbia’s Novak Djokovic has once again stated that he wants the lower-ranked players to earn more for the development of the sport.

The 36-year-old is the co-founder of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) with Canada’s Vasek Pospisil and has already onboarded a number of top players including the likes of former American tennis stary John Isner and the current world number five Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur.

Djokovic was quoted in a report by Forbes where he once again highlighted the need for players to earn more money at the lower level.

“I personally am not here with PTPA sitting with you because I want more money for myself,” he said. “That’s not the case. I’m fine for this life and many other lives. We all definitely want to see a change at the base level because the 150th player on the planet struggles and often has to travel without a coach. People don’t realize how expensive this sport is.”

The 23-time Grand Slam winner further went on to state that he is planning to have a word with Spain’s tennis star Carlos Alcaraz to ask for his support for PTPA.

“I haven’t done it with Carlos yet, but I’ve been planning to,” he said. “We’ve been facing each other too much on the court and we haven’t had a chance to relax a little bit. We did kind of have a funny little talk after the finals of Cincinnati and we’re going to play a golf round together eventually so maybe that’s going to be an ideal few hours for me to spend with him and have a little chat.”

Djokovic is currently taking part in the US Open 2023 where he has already booked his place in the final of the competition after defeating America’s young tennis star Ben Shelton in the semis in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-2, 7-6.