Former French tennis star Marion Bartoli has come under fire after suggesting how she would help financially support players ranked outside of the top 100.
Bartoli, who won the 2013 Wimbledon trophy, has come up with a radical idea that would see money earned from doubles tournaments get taken away and redistributed to singles players. Speaking to Tennis Majors, the 35-year-old said she couldn’t understand where there were so many doubles events taking place outside of the four grand slams and Olympics. Her argument stems from a claim that she has witnessed doubles players having teams of ‘like six people’ and therefore earn more than enough money.
“I know I’m not going to make myself friends but I think we have to say it: I don’t understand all these doubles competitions all year round,” Bartoli told the Match Points talk show.
“I understand during Grand Slams and the Olympics because doubles is part of tennis history (but) I’ve been to some tournaments now with my player and I see now, these (doubles) players, they have crews, like six people around them.’
“When I was a player, as a singles player, we couldn’t afford to pay six people to travel with us full-time. They can afford to pay six people and they just play doubles!”
The comment concerns the ongoing debate over how lower-ranked players are coping during the Tour suspension due to COVID-19. Recently it was announced that a $6 million Relief fund has been set up to support roughly 800 players. The money will be issued by the ATP and WTA as long as players meet certain criteria. Furthermore, the International Tennis Federation is currently in the process of coming up with their own plans.
Nevertheless, Bartoli believes it would be right to take some money away from the doubles Tour because those players don’t put in as much effort in her opinion. The Frenchwoman won three WTA titles in doubles during her career.
“Why don’t you get some of that money to qualifiers, to someone who plays only Challengers? I just don’t understand because in doubles, you just don’t make the same effort as a singles player,” she said.
“You don’t practice as much….they keep going, week in and week out, getting that money. I don’t know if we have to stop doubles completely, but to get less money and give that money to qualification and others, that should be a solution.”
Belgian tennis player Joran Vliegen has hit back at the criticism. The 26-year-old currently has a doubles ranking of 36. Last season he won three ATP titles and reached the quarter-finals of the French Open. During 2019 he earned $187,673, which is more than 20 times less than what Novak Djokovic has already earned in 2020.
“Marion Bartoli thinks we shouldn’t play doubles and give money to singles qualifiers and challengers because we can afford to have six people in our team. We’ve only recently added a traveling coach because we could never afford it. Also, we practice 5-6 hours a day. Guess that’s not enough for her,” Vliegen wrote on Twitter.
“I completely agree with her that there is a problem with prize money distribution towards the lower rankings. In my opinion however, this is not the way to change that,” he added.
Addressing the current structure of the Tour, Bartoli has also criticised the distribution of prize money to players at the big tournaments. Arguing that the current situation makes the rich richer and poor poorer. Citing the US Open, which awarded the 2019 men’s and women’s champion $3,850,000 each. Roughly a third of what the former world No.7 earned throughout her entire career.
“When I see someone winning the US Open, and taking 4 million…. I won Wimbledon and I didn’t take four million. I believe I took enough money out of it. Right now the numbers are way too high for the people who are winning. They don’t share the money enough.” She concluded.
