Novak Djokovic has said that he wants to use his position to fight for better conditions, especially for those who are struggling to sustain themselves in the expensive sport.
24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic has long been vocal about his wish to improve the conditions of the sport in terms of rights and regarding the fact that lower-ranked players struggle to make a living from it. In recent years, he founded the PTPA to act as a sort of union through which players could fight for their rights and hold the ATP and WTA accountable.
Many players find it difficult to maintain the cost of training, a team, equipment, and travel when they are not ranked among the very best in the world. Recently, India's No. 1 player Sumit Nagal revealed that he was 'just breaking even.'
"I don't have anything in savings. I am just breaking even depending on how I do in the tournaments," he said.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Djokovic recalled when he was in the same situation as the lower-ranked players of today and how some things could be improved to make it easier to sustain a tennis career.
"I was in their shoes, I understand the struggle. I understand the difficulties of paying the costs for travel if you don't have the backing of a strong federation, which 90% or even more of the players around the world don't have, and not having the budget to pay for coaches and physiotherapists.
"Coming from Serbia, I didn't have any of that. Now I have influence, I have power, and I want to fight for better conditions.
"We talk so much about how much money the US Open winners make but we are not talking about how many players, both men and women, singles, doubles, all together, professionals live from this sport.
"It's less than 400 players max for a sport that is super global and then it's one of the most-watched sports on the planet. That's poor. That's a failure for our sport," he said.
Tennis is such an expensive sport to rise to the top. And players are not well paid
Despite being India's number one tennis player, it has become a challenge for @nagalsumit to sustain on the ATP Tour. He missed 1st 3 months of training due to fund crunch and has just 900 Euros in his pocket. He needs sponsors. My story: theprint.in/sport/i-have-j…
