It was known that tennis is a rich sport, a sport of the rich, but I had no idea that the professionalism of this sport would hit the competitions of these sports as well. The Corona has changed a lot over the past year and its impact is now on the tennis tournament and its finances. The best example of this is the ATP 500 level competition in Acapulco, Mexico starting March 15.
The organizers wanted a leading player like 20-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal to play in the tournament. Even though Nadal plays here every year, playing the leading players on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour is not within the reach of all tournament organizers because star players like Federer-Nadal-Djokovic have to pay a hefty appearance fee if they want to play in the Masters 1000 category.The amount ranges from 5 lakhs to 10 Lakhs Dollars, with Federer reportedly getting the highest apprenticeship fee, followed by Nadal and Djokovic.
The cost of arranging the players in the biobubble has increased so much and the attendance of the spectators has also been limited. Therefore, it is becoming difficult for the competition organizers to maintain not only the hefty appearance fee but also the prize money. The organizers of Acapulco have cut the prize money by 40 per cent this year. That is why they’ve made it clear that we cannot afford to play a player like Rafael Nadal who is number two in the world this year. So Rafael Nadal will not be seen playing in this tournament this year.
“We can’t afford to play Nadal this year,” said Raul Zurutuza, director of the Acapulco tournament. Nadal’s representative and former tennis player Carlos Costa has said that the financial support given by the organizers of Acapulco is not enough. We don’t have that much money. Our budget is very limited this year. “So we’re going to invest in the people we want to bring in,” he said.
Alexander Zverev, ranked seventh in the tournament, Is already Paid a lot of money for his contract. And canceling that deal is going to cost them more than playing. The demand for the other four to five players, who will have to pay an appearance fee, is also much lower than usual.
Explaining the role of Rafael Nadal in this regard, his representative Carlos Costa said in a statement that misrepresentation was being made about Nadal’s non-participation in Acapulco. Nadal’s non-participation is due to his health problems. In addition, the schedule of competitions and long journeys are also issues.During the Australian Open, Rafa suffered from shoulder pain and back pain. He is recovering from that so he will not participate in the Rotterdam tournament. Costa said there were no other reasons for Rafa’s non-participation in Acapulco.
Nadal himself has said that he is saddened by the fact that he will not be able to play in the Rotterdam tournament but that he has suffered from back pain since the tournament in Adelaide and that it persisted during the Australian Open. I played in Melbourne with a temporary solution to that. But after returning to Spain, my doctor advised me not to play in the coming weeks.
