The misclassified victims of a “sporting and financial injustice”

A huge "slap". Deprived of tournaments - and therefore income - for five months by the coronavirus pandemic, players at the bottom of the ladder are bitter at the announcement of the recovery, the terms of which further widen the gap with the tennis elite worldwide.

What crystallizes their anger is the lack of qualifications at the US Open endorsed Wednesday by the American Federation (USTA) in the logic of "reducing the risk" of spreading the virus by limiting the number of people present at Flushing Meadows. The tables for the double men and women were also tightened. Mixed doubles, juniors and wheelchair tennis will not have a place.

Usually 128 players and as many players above the 100th place in the world compete for these qualifications. At the end of the summer (August 31-September 13), almost as many will not be invited to New York, since only the 120 best, plus eight "wild cards", will be there. "Thank you to the ATP and the US Open for further prolonging my unemployment," jokes for example on Twitter the American Mitchell Krueger, 195th world player and direct victim of this decision.

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"What a slap for all those who play the qualifications, who will not even have the opportunity to defend their chances and who literally depend on the money of the Grand Slams to survive," laments the American Sachia Vickery, her 158th player world.

"I find it so huge that I don't even react. It just seems surreal, for his part reacted to L'Equipe the French Elliot Benchetrit, 208th in the world and who should have participated in these qualifiers. There are business issues behind but they destroy the morale of 150 players. "

At least half of annual income, even without qualifying each time

The crux of the problem is the “Grand Slam-dependence” of the financial health of these players playing roughly between the 100th and 250th places in the world. We can consider the cases of Krueger and Vickery as emblematic: for example, in 2019, he drew almost 60% of his gains from the four Grand Slam tricks (about 89,000 dollars out of 152,000), she even more, almost two-thirds (about $ 119,000 out of 186,000). Both, however, appeared only once in the main draw. And in total, she played 24 tournaments, all circuits combined, him 31.

“The fact that there are no qualifications is an incredible sporting and financial injustice. They are the ones who need to play and make the most money, not the first thirty or forty in the world ", summarizes for AFP the former player Julien Benneteau, who became captain of the French Fed team Cup. Difficult to swallow that world tennis has largely decided to restart without them.

"Just numbers"

"Nice to have had a meeting with more than 400 players so that now only less than a third can play ... It shows that in the end, we are just numbers ...", deplores the German Dustin Brown (239th ), referring to a video conference organized by ATP a week ago.

“Not playing qualifications and having reduced double tables will widen the inequalities, alarms Canadian Gaby Dabrowski, specialist in double. We don't want the cursor to climb disproportionately again. "

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Admittedly, in the midst of a pandemic, the various instances of world tennis (ATP, WTA, Grand Slam and ITF) have raised more than six million dollars for some 800 players who have been put in financial difficulties by the world health crisis. And the USTA has reserved $ 3.3 million for ATP and as much for the WTA, which it invites them to devote to "compensating players" deprived of qualifications and to "subsidize or organize" other tournaments for help them.

Very competitive challengers

In fact, beyond the US Open restricted version, the new ATP calendar unveiled on Wednesday gives pride of place to the biggest events, with, over seven tournaments, two Grand Slams, the US Open and Roland-Garros ( with qualifications, but perhaps reduced), and three Masters 1000. And even if ATP "continues to explore all the options to (add) other ATP 500 and 250 tournaments" and announces the resumption of the circuit secondary (Challenger) "the week of August 17", opportunities to play may be very rare.

"They will put Challenger so that some can play, but there will not be many and, suddenly, they will close around the 170th, 180th player in the world. The others will not be able to play, says Benneteau. Today, if many players do not feel represented, I understand them. "

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