Novak Djokovic wants tennis to learn from the NBA and NFL.
Ahead of the Australian Open, the Serb has labelled the prize money in tennis a problem and called the authorities to learn from American Sports.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion has been a massive benefactor of tennis prize money himself, earning $185 million in his 22 year tennis career.
With 99 career titles, Djokovic’s wealthiest year in tennis came in 2015 when the Serbian won 11 trophies and racked up $18.2 million in prize money alone.
Despite such huge sums on offer for the top players in the sport, the revenue split between tournaments and players sits well below other sports like the NFL and NBA.
The top athletes across the NBA and NFL can earn much more from a secure salary compared to tennis players who have no guaranteed income from the sport.
“It’s a fact,” Djokovic said in his Brisbane press conference last week when asked if a pay gaps exist in tennis.
“And what Nick [Kyrgios] says is true. If you look at the percentage that players get from the overall revenue of the sport, it is much lower than most other global sports, especially American ones like the NBA, NHL and NFL.”
The former world No.1 went on to highlight the complexities in securing more money for tennis players with separate entities in tennis and no governing body to hold them all accountable with players having no power.
“Players don’t really have any power on the major topic,” he explained.
“The system often creates conflicts of interest between players and tournaments, where players advocate for increased prize money while tournaments resist those demands.”
Therefore, with so many bodies involved, Djokovic admitted, “it’s difficult to get everyone in the same room and agree on the percentage of money that should go to the professionals.”
“We want more money, they maybe don’t want to give us as much money when we talk about the prize money.”
One way the 24 Grand Slam champion has tried to fix the issue was by founding the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) in 2020.
The aim when founding the organisation in 2020 was to ‘strive for fairer distribution of revenue and welfare’ in the sport.
“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,” Djokovic said in 2023.
Kyrgios, who partnered the Serbian in Brisbane, also spoke on the issue in a press conference, labelling the share of revenue received by players as a joke.
“The tour is ridiculous compared to any other sport,” the Australian said.
“It’s absurd, really, the amount of travel we do, considering we don’t even get paid what we are supposed to get paid, as well, which is a joke.
The Australian Open, which kicks off this Sunday, awards $2.17 million to their male and female singles winner with a player who loses in the first round securing $82,000.
Novak Djokovic has won ten Australian Open titles and will be looking to win his eleventh with Andy Murray now in his corner as his new coach.
