Vasek Pospisil Criticizes Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal

Published 12/19/2019, 10:58 AM EST

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The member of the ATP Council Vasek Pospisil criticized the other members of the council Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal over their lack of interest to support the increase of ‘sports revenue percentage’ issued to tennis players. 

“Unfortunately, they (Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer) haven’t supported the movement,” Pospisil addressed Daily Hive. “From my conversations with Roger and what they (Federer and Nadal) say in the press, I think they acknowledge that there’s an issue, but unfortunately, they haven’t followed with what the 80-plus top hundred players have signed on for.”

The ‘Big Three’ of tennis Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic are the only three tennis players to enter the 100-million-dollar club i.e., the three of them have earned more than US $100 million in prize money.

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Pospisil stated that Federer and Nadal are not the right people to discuss the financial issues of the circuit. “They’re not the type of guys, in my opinion, that should be negotiating complicated details of financials and the way that money is distributed. We need guys that have studied that for decades,” he mentioned.

The two Goliaths of tennis Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal joined the ATP Council after the series of resignations during Wimbledon 2019. It was a collective decision made by both of them. 

Know More – Rafael Nadal on Rejoining With Roger Federer: “We Decided to be Together”

On the contrary, Vasek Pospisil praised the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic. The Canadian stated that Djokovic is cooperative and he genuinely works towards the welfare of the sport.

“Novak has been incredible,” said Pospisil. “Honestly, I didn’t really know him too well before I got on the player council with him. We sort of bonded and in the sense that we both look at the issues the same way and we have very visions on how we think the tennis world needs to improve.”

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“He’s sometimes misunderstood on the court. He’s he plays a lot of passion and fire, but honestly when in the player council room he’s really fighting for all the players, even lower-ranked guys.”

The Canadian tennis player Pospisil earlier stated that only 14% of the revenue is currently given to players. He proclaimed for the increase in of that percentage which in turn would aid the lower-ranked players to support their tennis and livelihood.

“Tennis has the lowest revenue sharing of all professional sports that have become a global business. Even the 14 percent is not an audited figure. This number could, potentially, be quite a bit less.” Pospisil stated in the month of August.

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“This low revenue share, in turn, means only a handful of tennis players can make a good living in a sport that makes billions of dollars and in which athletes have perhaps the highest out-of-pocket expenses compared with other sports.”

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At present Pospisil is ranked 149th in the world. On the ATP Tour Shanghai Masters was his last appearance this year. There he lost to the eventual champion Daniil Medvedev in the pre-quarters of the tournament.

At-Large: Novak Djokovic – President
1-50 Singles: Kevin Anderson – Vice President
1-50 Singles: Rafael Nadal
1-50 Singles: John Isner
1-50 Singles: Sam Querrey
51-100 Singles: Yen-Hsun Lu
51-100 Singles: Vasek Pospisil
1-100 Doubles: Jurgen Melzer
1-100 Doubles: Bruno Soares
At-Large: Roger Federer
Coach: Brad Stine

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Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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