Tennis star Dominic Thiem has controversially criticised Novak Djokovic’s idea of financially helping the lower-ranked players to help them overcome the crisis caused by the stoppage of Tennis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thiem stated that he was ready to help destitute people and institutions who are in real need of the money but said that none of the lower-ranked players were going through an existential crisis.
“None of the lower-ranked players have to fight for their lives. I’ve seen players on the ITF-Tour who don’t commit to the sport 100%,” the world number three told Austrian outlet Krone Sport.
“Many of them are quite unprofessional. I don’t see, why I should give them money. I’d rather donate to people & institutions, who really need it.
“There is no profession in the world, where you are guaranteed success and high income at the start of your career.None of the top players took anything for granted. We all had to fight our way up the rankings,” he added.
Djokovic had reveled about his plan to raise around $3 million to $4.5 million to distribute the sum to players ranked from around 200th to 700th during an Instagram Live session with three-time Grand Slam winnner Stan Wawrinka.
The world number one further informed that he had already spoken with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal about working with the ATP to set up a fund to help lower-ranked tennis players who have been financially affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Serbian had said the ATP and “most likely” the Grand Slam tournaments would be involved. He also said there would be a system devised to determine which players were most in need of the cash.
With PTI inputs