Carreno-Busta: "We live in society where athletes are viewed as privileged"

During these hard times, everybody is having some kind of struggle. This includes also professional tennis players that are sometimes having problems with money, especially now when the whole tour was suspended until 13th July. Previously, Patrick Mouratoglou spoke about this problem. Now, also Pablo Carreno-Busta opens up about financial struggles among the players.

"The players in Spain are self-employed. Currently, I don't have big problems because I managed to earn enough money. I have colleagues who are living with their parents. Like all self-employed people, we cannot work at the moment and therefore our earnings are zero, with the expenses continuing to increase. We pay the mortgages, the coaches and the members of our team. They are very difficult times. We live in a society where athletes are viewed as privileged, with large and luxurious houses, but there are many tennis players who do not have the same income and resources as others. There are communities in Spain that have lost interest in tennis, a community where the sport is dying," said Carreno-Busta.

It is necessary to create a tournament system, like in Italy, a country that hosts ATP, Challenger and Futures events. To have a television channel reserved for tennis it would be a great way to get people involved again. I think it's necessary. We hope that the break will last as little as possible because recovering the level will be complicated, we won't have tennis until July 13th at least, but I think the break will be prolonged. We hope they find a vaccine soon, but it won't be possible any time soon," Carreno-Busta said.

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